The Mamata Banerjee government had earlier sent a proposal to the Centre calling for changing the name of West Bengal to Bangla
In yet another setback for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, the Centre on Wednesday rejected its demand for changing the name of the state to Bangla.
The Mamata Banerjee government had earlier sent a proposal to the Centre calling for changing the name of West Bengal to Bangla.
Speaking on the issue in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (MoS) Nityanand Rai said that the Centre has not cleared the name ‘Bangla’ proposed by the West Bengal government. Changing a state’s name requires constitutional amendment and it is done after taking into consideration all relevant factors, he said. Rai made this remarks while responding to a question asked by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee in the Upper House of Parliament.
On July 26 last year, the West Bengal assembly had passed a resolution unanimously to change the name of the state to ‘Bangla’ in the three most-spoken languages -- Bengali, Hindi and English -- and had sent the proposal to the Home Ministry. The resolution was then sent to the Union Home Ministry for approval. It suggested ‘Paschimbanga’ in 2011, but it was turned down by the central government.
Later in the day, Banerjee wrote a letter to Modi seeking early completion of formalities for a constitutional amendment. “The name West Bengal is in English and Paschim Banga in Bengali, and it does not bear the testimony of the classical history that our state has... Name of the state should invoke a strong sense of identity and its people and this identity can be formed is the states name carries the signature of its history and the culture,” she said in the letter.
(With inputs from agencies)
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