PATNA: A day after the Nitish Kumar cabinet approved the proposal to rename Gaya town as Gaya Ji, a similar demand to change the name of Bihar’s capital Patna is gaining momentum.
On Friday, the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar approved the general administration department’s proposal to rename Gaya as Gaya Ji owing to the town's religious significance. Lakhs of tourists from across the globe visit Gaya every year during Pitripaksh to offer prayers (pind daan) to their departed ancestors.
A fresh demand for renaming Patna as Pataliputra resurfaced on Saturday when the chairman of the Patliputra Jagran Abhiyan Samiti and noted litterateur Anil Sulabh raised the issue. In a letter to CM Nitish Kumar, Sulabh said that the long pending demand of people of the state capital should be fulfilled by renaming Patna as Pataliputra.
He, however, congratulated Nitish for changing the name of Gaya town, which will be now officially known as Gaya Ji. “But when will the name of Patna be changed? Is there any proposal to do so on the demand of people of the state capital?” he sought to know from the CM.
Sulabh is not alone in raising the issue of renaming Patna as Pataliputra. Earlier, lieutenant general (retired) S K Sinha had also urged Nitish to do so. Sinha, who was later appointed as Governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, had requested the CM to consider the long pending demand of the people.
Gen Sinha had argued that if Madras can be renamed Chennai, Bombay as Mumbai, Calcutta as Kolkata, why not rename Patna as Pataliputra, which was the capital of the powerful Maurya Empire and stood at the site of the Bihar capital.
On the other hand, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had earlier advocated to rename Patna as Azeemabad. “Patna was known as Azeemabad during the medieval period,” he had said.