Modi government renamed 25 towns and villages in last one year

In the past one year, the union government has given approval to the renaming of 25 towns and villages across the nation, among the pending proposals is one for the state of West Bengal.
Iconic Mughal Sarai railway station in UP was renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction. (Photo | PTI)
Iconic Mughal Sarai railway station in UP was renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction. (Photo | PTI)

NEW DELHI: After Allahabad and Faizabad now it is time for West Bengal to be renamed as 'Bangla' as per sources, Centre has a proposal pending with it regarding the renaming of the state.

In the past one year, the union government has given approval to the renaming of 25 towns and villages across the nation, among the pending proposals is one for the state of West Bengal, according to officials.

After completing the lengthy process which involves multiple agencies, departments and various central ministries, the Ministry of Home Affairs has given consent to the proposals of name change in 25 villages and towns.

According to officials, the proposals to change the names of Allahabad to Prayagraj and Faizabad to Ayodhya are yet to be received by the ministry from the Uttar Pradesh government. Some of the approved name change proposals are: Rajahmundry as Rajamahendravaram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh; Outer Wheeler as A P J Abdul Kalam Island, situated in Bhadrak district of Odisha; Arikkod as Areekode in Malappura district of Kerala; Pindari as Pandu-Pindara in Jind district of Haryana; and Samphur as Sanphure in Kiphire district of Nagaland.

The home ministry considers renaming proposals as per the laid down guidelines, this after consultations and consent from the Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts and Survey of India. The concerned ministries provide a no-objection confirming that no such town or village is named the same in the records.

Other renaming proposals approved by the ministry include Landgewadi to Narsinhagaon in Sangali district of Maharashtra; Garhi Sampla as Ch. Sir Chhotu Ram Nagar in Rohtak district of Haryana; Khatu Kalan village as Bari Khatu in Nagour district of Rajasthan; Mihgawan Chhakka and Mihgawan'Tilia as Mihgawan Sarkar and Mihgawan Ghat respectively in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh and Shukratal Khadar as Sukhtirth Khadar and Shukratal Bangar as Sukhtirth 'Bangar in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.

The renaming of a state requires amendment of the Constitution with a simple majority in Parliament. For changing the name of a village or town, an executive order is needed. The proposal to change the name of West Bengal to 'Bangla', as suggested by the state government, was recently forwarded by the home ministry to the Ministry of External Affairs for its opinion as the proposed name sounded similar to the name of neighbouring country Bangladesh, the official said.

Last year, the Centre had approved the proposal to rename the iconic Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) station. Approval was also given to add the word -"Maharaj-" in Mumbai's iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. It is now known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

The name of any state was changed last time in 2011 when Orissa became Odisha. Name of Bombay was changed to Mumbai in 1995, Madras to Chennai in 1996, Calcutta to Kolkata in 2001. The central government had approved the renaming of 11 cities of Karnataka, that included Bangalore as Bengaluru, in 2014.

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