This story is from November 14, 2018

UP cabinet gives nod to renaming of Faizabad to Ayodhya

UP cabinet gives nod to renaming of Faizabad to Ayodhya
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath (File photo)
LUCKNOW: Days after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced the renaming of Faizabad division as Ayodhya, the state cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to the change of name. The cabinet also approved the name-change of Allahabad division to Prayagraj.
Ayodhya division will now comprise of Ayodhya, Ambedkarnagar, Sultanpur, Amethi and Barabanki districts while Prayagraj division will include Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh districts.
Yogi had announced this during the Diwali celebrations in Ayodhya on November 6.
Cabinet minister government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh, however, clarified that the name of Faizabad city would not be affected.
“Ayodhya has been associated with Lord Ram and is known as his birth place. Ayodhya has been the capital of various dynasties, including the Ikshvaku dynasty of which Lord Ram is a descendent. The area is widely known as Ayodhya which is why the proposal to change name was unanimously accepted by the cabinet,” said a spokesperson.
The name of Allahabad city was changed to Prayagraj in October and the decision was approved by the cabinet on October 16.
Since the headquarters of Allahabad division are in the rechristened city of Prayagraj, a decision was taken to rename the division as well. “There was no point in having an Allahabad division when the main city has been renamed something else. It would have only led to confusion so it was decided to change the name of the division as well,” said a senior official.

Allahabad was the second city in the state to be renamed, after BJP government changed name of Mughalsarai to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Nagar after its ideologue.
The CM had said that ‘prayag’ is a confluence of two rivers but since there was confluence of three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati in Allahabad, the city’s name should be Prayagraj or the king of prayags.
“Nothing else will change due to renaming of the divisions. The four districts that were under Allahabad division will now be under Prayagraj division and the five districts under Faizabad division will now be in Ayodhya division, nothing else changes,” said urban development minister Suresh Khanna.
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