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Three Rajasthan villages get Centre's nod for name change

JAIPUR: Three villages and its railway stations have finally got new names with the Union home ministry giving green signal to the proposals of the state government.


Ismailpura village in Jhunjhunu district will now be known as Pichanwa Khurd, Narpara in Jalore has been renamed as Narpura, and Laxmangarh in Rajamand will be called Adawala.




The Centre on Monday has given its consent for changing the names of villages and railway stations as proposed by various state governments.

"We are yet to receive any communication. As soon as we get the final order, the modalities of changing names would be carried out," said an officer with the North Western Railways (NWR) on Tuesday.

Last year, Miyon ka Bara in Barmer had been renamed as Mahesh Nagar. In some cases, the demand for a change in the name was very old. The residents felt that the name did not reflect the social or religious nature of the villagers. The new name Mahesh Nagar was chosen citing pre-independence address of the village.

"During the British rule, the village was known as Mahesh Bara. But after independence, it was renamed as Miyan ka Bara. Despite the fact that most of the villagers were Hindus, the name did not reflect that. We had urged the government authorities to look into it. We faced difficulties as people in the neighboring villages avoided getting their daughters married in our village, only because the name gave an impression of being a Muslim dominated locality," said Sanwar Singh, a native of the village.

Earlier, the village had a big Shiv temple which was the main reason behind the name Mahesh ka Bara, said a resident.

Similarly, Ismailpur is mainly dominated by the Jat community. The villagers have been demanding for a change of the name for a long time.

"The village is close to Pilani and Surajgarh and mainly has Hindu population of Jats, Rajputs and Brahmins. Our ancestors maintained that the village used to be known as Pichanwa Khurd. We had been demanding to get that original name for our village," said Anoop Sharma, a native.

In August last year, the BJP government had sent the proposals to change names of the villages. Congress, which was in opposition then, had criticized the move saying BJP tried to polarize the villagers to gain votes in state assembly elections.

Laxmangarh is already popular as Adawala. "Many people use the name as Laxmangarh Aadawala, while elders remember it as Adawala. There are very few people who call it Laxmangarh," said an officer in Rajsamand district .

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