LUCKNOW: After renaming Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj in 2018, the Uttar Pradesh government is mulling another name-changing exercise. Now, Basti district may be renamed Vasishtha Nagar after Maharishi Vasishtha, the guru of Lord Ram, according to the Ramayana.
Sources said the district administration is busy putting things together and completing the modalities for the purpose besides assessing the cost involved in renaming the district.
"We want the district to be named after Maharishi Vasishtha. A proposal has been sent to the state government in this regard,” said MP Harish Dwivedi.
The demand for renaming Basti started last year after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that the upcoming Basti Medical College will be named after Maharishi Vasishtha.
Ram devotees believe that Basti is the ancient city where Lord Ram stayed for a day during his journey to Janakpuri from Ayodhya. It is also believed that Maharishi Vasishtha was the author of the seventh mandal of the Rig Veda.
Basti DM Ashutosh Niranjan said that if the renaming occurred, the cost incurred would be an estimated Rs 1 crore.
However, Revenue Board chief Deepak Trivedi said that he was yet to receive any such proposal. “The proposal is yet to reach us. Once we receive it, we will follow the due procedure to forward the proposal to the government,” he said.