It’s official. UP cabinet clears renaming Faizabad district as Ayodhya

Allahabad district was renamed as Prayagraj last month and the renaming of Faizabad district as Ayodhya was announced on the eve of Diwali.

Updated on: Nov 13, 2018, 14:43:31 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Umesh Raghuvanshi

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The Uttar Pradesh government has today formally cleared the renaming of names of Allahabad and Faizabad divisions to Prayagraj and Ayodhya divisions.

Utter Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. (HT Photo)

Allahabad district was renamed as Prayagraj last month and the renaming of Faizabad district as Ayodhya was announced on the eve of Diwali.

“Yes, Allahabad is non-existent. We will seek the state cabinet’s approval to rename Allahabad division as Prayagraj division,” a senior UP government official had said on Monday.

“We are completing the necessary formalities. The issue is likely to come up at the state cabinet meeting likely to be held on Tuesday,” he said.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the state government is contemplating moves to change names of many other districts as well.

Sangeet Som, the BJP MLA from Sardhana in Meerut, has also demanded that Muzaffarnagar be renamed as Laxminagar. “We have come across the demands for renaming many other districts. As of now, the proposals about renaming Faizabad district and division as Ayodhya and Allahabad division as Prayagraj are being sent to the state cabinet,” said another UP official.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Umesh Raghuvanshi
Umesh Raghuvanshi is an award-winning journalist with nearly four decades of demonstrated experience in the profession. He is the author of Ayodhya: The Gods Are Liberated. He is skilled in storytelling and newswriting, and writes on politics, governance, legislature, finance, environment, and social issues. He is based in Lucknow, is well-travelled, and has covered several national and international events, as well as all assembly and parliament elections in Uttar Pradesh since 1984. He has been a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and a Metcalf Fellow at the Metcalf Institute of Marine and Environmental Reporting, University of Rhode Island, USA. He is a science graduate from DBS College, Dehradun, and holds an MA in Political Science from DAV (PG) College, Dehradun. He won the KC Kulish International Merit Award for excellence in journalism (2015) and received it in New Delhi in 2017. He also won a competition organised by the United Nations Environment Programme DTIE OzonAction Programme in 2009 that assessed coverage of the interlinkages between ozone and climate change. He was awarded in Beijing, China, in 2010. He started his career with a Dehradun-based English daily in the early 1980s and later worked with The Pioneer too.Read More