NEW DELHI: After the proposal of a councillor of AAP to rename Old Delhi’s Hauz Qazi Chowk to ‘Hari Chand Verma Chowk’ was withdrawn, it created an uproar on social media and faced strong opposition from Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor on Wednesday.
North Corporation Mayor and BJP leader Raja Iqbal Singh, who had previously accorded anticipatory approval to the proposal, on Wednesday withdrew his approval for the same. Hari Chand Verma was a former Congress leader and councillor.
An event was also planned on March 10 (Thursday) in this regard, which had AAP minister Imran Hussain and BJP leader Harshvardhan as the guests. Kapoor, who urged the mayor to withdraw his approval to the proposal and stood against it, said: “Hauz Qazi is a historical name and as per the law, it can’t be changed. It is my sincere request to withdraw the proposal.”
He said that the area is more than 400 years old and there is a lot of history attached to it, so tampering with it is not right. Historian Swapna Liddle, said: “As the name goes, it used to be a huge reservoir. It is located on Grand Trunk Road, which is the oldest highways going from Fatehpuri to Turkman Gate. Some of these structures are dating back to even before the Mughal era. Changing the name of such a historical place is not a great idea at all.”