Patna: Villagers are protesting the removal of a signboard with the Urdu name of a railway station in Bihar state, saying this does not appear to be in good taste.
As per the Railways’ official instruction, the name of each station has to be written in three languages — English, Hindi and Urdu.
Residents were up in arms after they found the name of the Biharsharif railway station in Bihar’s Nalanda district currently written in only two languages — English and Hindi.
The Urdu signboard has mysteriously been missing from the station for more than a year.
Nalanda is the home district of chief minister Nitish Kumar.
“We are really hurt at the way the Urdu name of the station has been removed from the signboard,” Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) president Asif Ahsan told the media on Friday. “The town has a sizeable Urdu-speaking population and hence the Urdu signboard should be restored at the earliest to respect their sentiments,” he added.
The SDPI had on Wednesday taken out a silent procession before handing out a memorandum to the local station manager.
Ahsan said he had spotted an error on a sign showing the station’s Urdu name, and had brought it to the notice of the authorities concerned in 2017.
But, a year after its removal, the Urdu signboard has not been restored.
“Urdu is the second official language of Bihar and hence all stations are also written in that language. We are investigating how the Urdu name has gone missing from the station,” chief public relations officer of East Central Railway Rajesh Kumar told the media on Friday.
The development comes amid demands by a section of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership to change names of certain stations in Bihar associated with Mughals who ruled India for over 200 years.
The campaign got a boost in October last year when firebrand BJP leader and federal minister Giriraj Singh called for the changing of all place names in Bihar associated with Mughals.
As part of this demand, he urged a name change for Bakhtiyarpur station in Patna district.
“Khilji had invaded and plundered Bihar yet there are many cities, such Bakhtiyarpur named after him,” Singh had said then.
Bakhtiyar Khilji, an Afghan military general, is said to have invaded Bihar some nine centuries ago on the directive of then Sultan of Delhi Qutubuddin Aibak.
The town draws its name from the Afghan military ruler.