Will Delhi be renamed again? Modi Govt planning to rechristen Delhi to get heritage city tag

India

oi-Avinash

New Delhi, Apr 6: Get ready for renaming of another Indian city and this time its none other than the national capital of New Delhi. If things go as per the Narendra Modi government's plan then the capital city would have not one but two names.

As per a report published in the Hindu, the bureaucrats have decided to rename the VVIP Lutyens' Bungalow Zone as well as the Walled City of (old) Delhi in order to get the UNESCO's heritage city tag for the national capital under the Master Plan of Delhi-2021. [Swachh Bharat Mission: Centre allocates Rs 32 crore to Delhi]

Two different names for Delhi

As per the report, the government is mulling to rename Lutyens' Bungalow Zone as Imperial City of New Delhi while the Walled City of (old) Delhi will be rechristened as Imperial City of Shahjahanabad. It must be remembered that these two areas are among six heritage zones notified in Master Plan of Delhi-2021.

Sources were quoted by Hindu's report, as saying, 'the proposal, which is likely to come up for clearance in the Delhi Development Authority's board meeting this week, has been mooted with an eye on the efforts to earn ‘heritage tag' for the area from the UNESCO.'

"The nomination dossier, seeking heritage tag for Lutyens' Zone, sent to UNESCO by names the area as Imperial City of New Delhi. Similarly, the Walled City of Delhi, Shahjahanabad is named in the dossier as the Imperial City of Shahjahanabad. In order to weed out any inconsistency when the UNESCO team is going through the verification process, a request has been made to the Authority to rename these areas in the MPD-2021," the official was further quoted.

The proposal was sent to the Authority few weeks back and it was further discussed by the board for settling any ‘claims and objections'. Sources said the proposal is likely to be cleared by the Board in its upcoming meeting this week. Once cleared, a notification would formalise the process.

Delhi has seen a lot of name changes since ancient times.

Why planning to rename Delhi when there is no urge for the same?

Now, a pertinent question arises as to why government officials want to rechristen the national capital when actually there is no urge for the same. There have been instances in the past when several cities were renamed but only after protest and public demand.

Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Mysuru, etc. were all renamed after people and political parties there pressed for the name change while it is not the same in case of Delhi.

Also, a question arises whether by simply renaming a city will help in improving its image or by improving its condition and infrastructure?

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