The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is expected to declare the state’s 76th district in the name of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and it will include his birthplace Bateshwar in Agra district.

According to officials of the Revenue department, a proposal has been sent to Agra district administration for its comment though the department has already completed the groundwork for carving out the new district, to be named as ‘Atal Nagar’, after the former Prime Minister.

The officials claimed that demands were pouring in from different quarters for declaring Bateshwar, the birthplace of the former Prime Minister, as a tehsil and naming it after Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

However, the Revenue department has proposed a new district in the name of the former Prime Minister, comprising Bah, Fatehabad and the new Bateshwar tehsils with Bah as the district headquarters.

“We are waiting for the report of the Agra district authorities over creation of the new district. The report is expected very soon and then the proposal will be put before the state Cabinet for its creation,” the officials said.

The total area of the proposed ‘Atal Nagar district’ will be 1,250 square kilometres and it will be bigger in size than districts like Bhadohi, Shamli, Shravasti and Hapur.

The total population of the new district will be around 7.5 lakh while the district headquarters Bah will be just 14 kilometres away from Agra-Lucknow Expressway and the proposed Bundelkhand expressway would pass through it.

Uttar Pradesh, home to 22 crore people, has 75 districts and 18 divisional headquarters. Recently, the Yogi government changed the name of Allahabad district to Prayagraj and of Faizabad district to Ayodhya.