NEW DELHI: Paryavaran Bhawan, a building in the national capital which houses several government departments including the Minority Affairs Ministry, has been re-named as Deendayal Antyodaya Bhawan, after RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay.
The decision to rename the building was taken by the Union Urban Development Ministry after Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla made a suggestion, an official statement on Monday said.
"On the suggestion of Najma Heptulla, the Ministry of Urban Development has taken the decision to rename Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex, New Delhi as Deendayal Antyodaya Bhawan," the statement said.
The NDA governments decision to rechristen the building comes in the wake of renaming of Aurangzeb Road in the national capital as APJ Abdul Kalam road last year and the changing of the names of Gurgaon and Mewat districts as Gurugram and Nuh, respectively, in the BJP-ruled Haryana.
In his letter to Heptulla, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has directed CPWD to take steps to rename the building "immediately" in consultation with the Ministry of Minority Affairs, it said.
Heptulla had in her letter of March 15 suggested to the UD Ministry to rechristen the building after Upadhyay "who evolved the idea of Antyodaya".
"This being his birth centenary year it is only appropriate that an important building in the national capital is named after him," she said.