By Aiswarya Raj
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday announced that 15 places in Haridwar, Dehradun, Nainital, and Udham Singh Nagar districts would be renamed in accordance with “public sentiment and Indian culture and heritage”.
Dhami said the move is aimed at inspiring people by honouring great personalities who contributed to the “preservation of Indian culture”.
In Haridwar district, Aurangzebpur will be renamed Shivaji Nagar, Gajiwali will be changed to Arya Nagar, Chandpur to Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mohammadpur Jat to Mohanpur Jat, Khanpur Kursli to Ambedkar Nagar, Idrishpur to Nandpur, Khanpur to Shri Krishna Pur, and Akbarpur Fazalpur to Vijayanagar.
In Dehradun district, Miyanwala will be renamed Ramji Wala, Pirwala will become Kesari Nagar, Chandpur Khurd will become Prithviraj Nagar, and Abdullahpur will be called Daksh Nagar.
In Nainital district, Nawabi Road will be renamed Atal Marg, and the road from Panchakki to ITI will be named Guru Golwalkar Marg.
In Udham Singh Nagar, the Sultanpur Patti municipal council will be renamed Kaushalya Puri.
The BJP called it a “historic decision” in tune with public sentiment, culture, and heritage. “The Bharatiya Janata Party welcomes this decision. On the one hand, this decision will inspire people by honouring the great personalities who contributed to the preservation of Indian culture, while on the other hand, it will also make them aware of the atrocities committed by foreign invaders,” said Manveer Chauhan, the BJP’s media in-charge in the state.
The Congress said it was neither in support of the move nor against it. Former chief minister and Congress leader Harish Rawat said, “Changing names has become the BJP’s agenda since they have nothing to show in terms of real work. The last eight-and-a-half years have been a complete failure, and the public has been questioning them. To distract the public, they are indulging in this spectacle of changing names.”
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com.