The Centre has given consent to the renaming of at least 25 towns and villages across India in the past one year. Among the pending proposals, one is for the state of West Bengal, according to officials.
Allahabad and Faizabad are the latest additions to the growing list of places that have been renamed.
Several proposals, including the renaming of West Bengal as 'Bangla', are pending with the central government. The process is a long-drawn one with the involvement of multiple central ministries and departments.
The Union Home Ministry has accepted the proposals of name-change of 25 villages and towns in different parts of the country in the last one year, a senior ministry official told PTI.
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, the official said.
Some of the approved name-change proposals are:
- Rajahmundry as Rajamahendravaram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh
- Outer Wheeler as APJ Abdul Kalam Island, situated in Bhadrak district of Odisha
- Arikkod as Areekode in Malappuram district of Kerala
- Pindari as Pandu-Pindara in Jind district of Haryana
- Samphur as Sanphure in Kiphire district of Nagaland
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 Nagaur district of Rajasthan
- Mihgawan Chhakka and Mihgawan Tilia as Mihgawan Sarkar and Mihgawan Ghat respectively in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh
- Shukartal Khadar as Sukhtirth Khadar and Shukartal Bangar as Sukhtirth Bangar in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh
However, a proposal to change the name of Kacharigaon to Phevima in Dimapur district of Nagaland was rejected by the home ministry recently, the official said.
Process of Changing Names
The home ministry considers such proposals in accordance with existing guidelines and in consultations with agencies concerned, another official said.
The home ministry gives its consent to the renaming of any place after no objections from the Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts and Survey of India.
These organisations have to confirm that there is no town or village in their records with a name similar to the proposed one.
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.
West Bengal to 'Bangla'
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.
Ahmedabad to ‘Karnavati’
On 8 November, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said the state government was considering renaming Ahmedabad as Karnavati and the name-change could be effected before next year's Lok Sabha elections.
BJP leader Raja Singh said on Thursday, 8 November that the party would "aim" to rename Hyderabad and other cities in the state with the names of great people if it is elected to power in Telangana in the forthcoming assembly polls.
Last year, the Centre had approved the proposal to rename the iconic Mughalsarai railway station to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) station after the Jan Sangh leader who was found dead in the railway station in 1968.
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 last time that any state’s name was changed was in 2011, when Orissa became Odisha. Bombay was changed to Mumbai in 1995, Madras to Chennai in 1996, and 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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