Plan to rechristen Aligarh as Harigarh approved by civic body

After discussions, the proposal was passed unanimously by the corporators present in board meeting. Now, it will be forwarded to the state government for consideration: Mayor

AGRA A proposal to rename Aligarh, in Uttar Pradesh, as Harigarh was unanimously approved by the city’s civic corporation earlier this week, mayor Prashant Singhal said on Tuesday.

This is not the first time that such demand has been raised. The zila panchayat representing elected members from the rural belt had also passed a proposal to rename Aligarh as Harigarh in the past. (File Photo)

The proposal, which was first made by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Sanjay Pandit, was cleared by all councillors during a board meeting on Monday. It will now be sent to the state government for approval, Singhal said.

Once the proposal is cleared by the state government, it will add to the list of places renamed in the state. In 2018, the state government renamed Faizabad as Ayodhya district; in the same year, the government also renamed Mughalsarai Railway Station in Chandauli district as Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction. A year later, it renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj.

“A board meeting of Aligarh Nagar Nigam’s General House lasted till late on Monday evening. Sanjay Pandit, one of the BJP corporators, presented the proposal for renaming Aligarh as Harigarh, which was a long pending demand,” Singhal said.

“After discussions, the proposal was unanimously passed by the corporators at the board meeting. Now, it will be forwarded to the state government for consideration. We are hopeful that this time, the demand to rename Aligarh as Harigarh will be met,” he added.

In 2021, the Zila panchayat of Aligarh had passed a resolution, seeking to rename Aligarh as Harigarh, but no developments took place.

Aligarh BJP MP Satish Gautam welcomed the clearance of the proposal. “In the past, I had written a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath seeking a change in the name,” he said.

“You can go about changing anything since you are in power. But I just wonder if such name changes are aligned with the traditional concept of shared heritage and pluralistic society,” asked Shahnawaz Alam, the head of state Congress’s minority wing.

At a public gathering on August 21, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief Keshav Prasad Maurya began his address by calling Aligarh as Harigarh, prompting several BJP leaders to voice similar demands later. Later that day, Maurya acknowledged the long-pending demand to rename the city and assured that “no demand would remain unmet”.