World | India
Uttaranchal to get a new name soon
The decks have been cleared to rename yet another Indian state.
- By Ajay Jha Chief, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 December 8, 2006
New Delhi: The decks have been cleared to rename yet another Indian state.
The hilly province Uttaranchal, carved out of Uttar Pradesh in October 2000, will now be known as Uttarakhand.
A Bill to this effect was passed by the Rajya Sabha yesterday. The Lok Sabha had already adopted The Uttaranchal (Alternation of Name) Bill earlier this week.
The Bill was sent to Parliament for ratification after it was passed by the state legislative assembly. The new name will come into force after it is formally gazetted.
Uttaranchal becomes the third state after Madras and Mysore to get a new name after Independence. Madras was renamed as Tamil Nadu and Mysore as Karnataka in the 1970s. Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had got their present names soon after Independence. They were earlier known as the Northern Province and the Central Province during the colonial British rule.
Uttaranchal was created along with Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand after the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government agreed to popular demands to bifurcate big states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which headed the NDA government, overlooked the popular sentiments to name the new state as Uttarakhand, while bowing down to the pressure not to name Jharkhand as Vananchal as the party wanted the new state to be known as.
Given the majority the incumbent United Progressive Alliance (UPA) enjoys in both Houses of Parliament, adopting the Bill to rename Uttaranchal was never in doubt. While it was passed in the Lok Sabha amidst din without any debate, lively discussion was witnessed when the Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha.
BJP lawmakers opposed both the move to rename the state and its timing. They were agitated over the government's motive since Uttaranchal is poised to elect its new legislative assembly in February.
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