The Aligarh Municipal Corporation has unanimously passed a resolution to change the city’s name to Harigarh. The proposal was presented by Mayor Prashant Singhal in a meeting on Monday and was supported by all corporators.
“In a meeting on Monday, a proposal was presented to change the name of Aligarh to Harigarh. All the corporators unanimously supported this proposal. Now, this proposal will be sent to the state government. I hope that the administration will take cognisance of this and fulfill our demand to change the name of Aligarh to Harigarh. This demand has been raised for a long time,” Singhal said.
If the Uttar Pradesh government approves the proposal to rename Aligarh, it will add to the growing tally of places renamed in the BJP-ruled state. One of the most high-profile recent examples is the renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj in January 2019.
A state government can change the name of any city or area within the state. After a civic body unanimously approves a proposed name change resolution, it writes to the state government. The state government subsequently forwards the resolution to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for approval. If the ministry and other relevant agencies approve the resolution, the state government can officially change the name.
In 2021, a proposal to rename Aligarh to Harigarh was approved by a zila panchayat meeting and sent to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In 2019, the CM had indicated that his government would keep up with its spree of renaming places across the state.
“We did what we felt was good. We renamed Mughal Sarai as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar, Allahabad as Prayagraj and Faizabad as Ayodhya. Where there is a need, the government will take the required steps,” Yogi had said.
Following the renaming of Faizabad district and Allahabad, members of the ruling BJP called for other cities to be renamed as well. A lawmaker had proposed that Agra be renamed Agravan or Agarwal, while another MLA proposed that Muzaffarnagar be renamed as Laxmi Nagar.
