The Cabinet approved the renaming of Kandla Port to Deendayal Port, Kandla on Wednesday (Source: Wikimedia Commons) The Cabinet approved the renaming of Kandla Port to Deendayal Port, Kandla on Wednesday (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

In a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Cabinet Wednesday approved the renaming of Kandla Port in Gujarat after former BJP leader Deendayal Upadhyay. The decision was taken as part of his 101st birth anniversary celebrations this year. The port, which is situated in the Kutch district, will be renamed ‘Deendayal Port, Kandla’. The Ministry of Shipping had issued a notification for the same last week.

The people of Kutch have been demanding the renaming of the port, which is located in the Kudla creek near the Gulf of Kutch. It is one of India’s major ports on the west coast, and handles the largest volume of cargo in the country. It was constructed in 1950 to serve western India after Partition.

While inaugurating various projects at the port earlier this year, PM Modi had said, “Deendayal stood for the poor…(so this name change) will inspire us to work for the poor, suppressed section of the society,” reported news agency PTI.

Upadhyay, born in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, on September 25, 1916, was a Bharatiya Jan Sangh leader and Indian politician. He conceived the philosophy on ‘integral humanism’, which was later adopted by the Jan Sangh and the BJP.

The Cabinet on Wednesday also approved the Extradition Treaty between India and Lithuania, which would provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to Lithuania. Further, it approved an MoU on upgradation of the women’s police training centre at Yamethin in Myanmar.

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