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Rabi Banerjee
Rabi Banerjee

NOMENCLATURE

A name change for West Bengal

PTI6_18_2016_000133B

The word 'West' from the name 'West Bengal' might be removed. The Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday decided to recommend that West Bengal be changed to Bengal.

"It was a long pending plan. The cabinet led by our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to rename West Bengal as Bengal in English and Bango in Bangla," said government spokesman Partha Chatterjee.

Chatterjee said the decision would be put before the West Bengal state Assembly for ratification. In the Assembly, Trinamool Congress leads with a huge majority.

The West Bengal government had earlier wanted to rename West Bengal as Paschim Banga. But this was turned down by the central government in 2015. The opposition parties too did not support the move.

This time, both Congress and CPM are expected to support the change. The Left front too, under Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2001, had tried to change the name to Bengal. But the NDA government had refused to accept the suggestion, but Calcutta was changed to Kolkata.

The reason behind the change of name is that West Bengal is always listed last during government programmes and procedures. After Assembly clears the name with mandate, the matter would go to Union home ministry which would place a proposal in front of the Union cabinet. Only then would the name be changed.

During her last visit to Delhi to attend the inter-state council meeting, Mamata Banerjee had taken up the matter with Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It is learned that she had convinced both the home minister and the Prime Minister during her trip.

Kolkata based industrialist and MD of Patton Industries, Sanjay Budhia said, "This is very positive and much awaited change. The word West was superfluous in the present context. Now, there is no East and no West, Bengal is the best."

Meanwhile, the attempt by central government to change the name of Calcutta High Court to Kolkata High Court has encountered problems as the Calcutta High Court itself refused to accept it.

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