Allahabad to be Prayagraj, says UP cabinet

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday approved the proposal to rename Allahabad as ‘Prayagraj’ amid protests by the opposition parties.

“Allahabad to be called Prayagraj from today, changing name of the city is the state subject,” UP minister Siddharth Nath Singh said.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s announcement of changing the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj had drawn protests from the Congress and the Samajwadi Party while receiving mixed reaction from intellectuals, teachers, literary persons, lawyers and politicians in the Sangam city.

Renaming the city would diminish the importance that Allahabad had in the country’s freedom movement, the Congress said. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav Monday alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government wanted to show their work only by “renaming”.

However, the UP government’s move has received the support of saints and seers, who said that the Allahabad name has not been changed but the ancient place has been given its original name, ‘Prayagraj’. The Akhada Parishad had raised the issue of changing the city’s name last year at a meeting with Adiyanath and he had promised to fulfill their demand by the Kumbh Mela 2019.

There had been attempts to change Allahabad’s name to Prayag during the BJP governments headed by Rajanath Singh and Kalyan Singh in the state, but did not come through due to disapproval by supporting parties.

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