Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana BJP government on Thursday renamed the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) because the acronym HUDA sounded similar to the last name of former chief minister of the state Bhupinder Singh Hooda .

The decision to change the name was taken during a cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar . The chief minister himself is the chairman of HUDA.

Health minister Anil Vij said that when anyone used to pronounce HUDA, it felt like they were referring to the former chief minister. Hence, they took the decision to change it to Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran, which is the Hindi translation of Haryana Urban Development Authority.

“It was creating confusion. When someone mentions Hooda is being jailed, people think of Pradhikaran (authority),” reasoned Vij.

Minister of state for social justice and empowerment Krishan Kumar Bedi also confirmed that the cabinet has decided to rename HUDA to HSVP.

When contacted, former chief minister Hooda termed the BJP government’s decision as ridiculous.

“This is a Badla, Badli sarkar. They will keep changing names of villages, cities and now even authorities. You can imagine their intentions,” Hooda said.

Last month, the state government decided to change the name of stadiums named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

In April last year, the Haryana BJP government also renamed Gurgaon to Gurugram and Mewat to Nuh.

A statutory body of the Haryana government , HUDA was established in 1977 under the Haryana Urban Development Authority Act, 1977.

The authority was constituted for the development of urban areas across Haryana by acquiring undeveloped land. It has 30 urban estates across the state.

