<p>Uttar Pradesh government on Monday changed the names of eight districts besides restoring the name of the King George’s Medical College in Lucknow.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The decision to change the names were taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet here. The previous Mayawati government had changed the original names of the eight districts and had named them after dalit icons.<br /><br />The districts, whose names have been changed included Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, Panchsheel Nagar, Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mahamaya Nagar, Kanshiram Nagar, Ramabai Nagar, Bheem Nagar and Prabuddh Nagar.<br /><br />While Panchsheel Nagar will be known by its old name of Hapur, Jyotiba Phule Nagar’s name has been given back its old name of Amroha. Similarly Kanshiram Nagar gets back its old name of Kasganj while Mahamaya Nagar will be known as Hathras again.<br /><br />Ramabai Nagar, Bheem Nagar and Prabuddh Nagar also get back their old names Kanpur Dehat, Sambhal and Shamli respectively. Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, which was earlier known as Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, would now be known as Gauriganj. Congress leaders had demanded that its name be Amethi but the state government did not concede their demand.<br /><br />The Mayawati government had named the medical college after Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj. The Akhilesh regime had restored its old name-King George’s Medical College.<br /><br />Strong protest<br /><br />BSP supremo Mayawati has decried the government for changing the names and termed the decision as anti-dalit. <br /><br />She slammed the SP for ‘insulting the Dalit icons and leaders’ by doing so and said that by this decision both Mulayam Singh Yadav and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav earned a ‘black spot' for themselves in history.<br /><br />“It is indeed saddening that the state government has whimsically changed the names, riding roughshod over sentiments of millions of downtrodden Dalits by changing the names of these districts which were kept after these towering Dalit icons,” Mayawati said. <br /><br />The SP-led state government should be prepared to bear the consequences of this hasty action, the BSP supremo said.<br /></p>
<p>Uttar Pradesh government on Monday changed the names of eight districts besides restoring the name of the King George’s Medical College in Lucknow.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The decision to change the names were taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet here. The previous Mayawati government had changed the original names of the eight districts and had named them after dalit icons.<br /><br />The districts, whose names have been changed included Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, Panchsheel Nagar, Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mahamaya Nagar, Kanshiram Nagar, Ramabai Nagar, Bheem Nagar and Prabuddh Nagar.<br /><br />While Panchsheel Nagar will be known by its old name of Hapur, Jyotiba Phule Nagar’s name has been given back its old name of Amroha. Similarly Kanshiram Nagar gets back its old name of Kasganj while Mahamaya Nagar will be known as Hathras again.<br /><br />Ramabai Nagar, Bheem Nagar and Prabuddh Nagar also get back their old names Kanpur Dehat, Sambhal and Shamli respectively. Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, which was earlier known as Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, would now be known as Gauriganj. Congress leaders had demanded that its name be Amethi but the state government did not concede their demand.<br /><br />The Mayawati government had named the medical college after Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj. The Akhilesh regime had restored its old name-King George’s Medical College.<br /><br />Strong protest<br /><br />BSP supremo Mayawati has decried the government for changing the names and termed the decision as anti-dalit. <br /><br />She slammed the SP for ‘insulting the Dalit icons and leaders’ by doing so and said that by this decision both Mulayam Singh Yadav and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav earned a ‘black spot' for themselves in history.<br /><br />“It is indeed saddening that the state government has whimsically changed the names, riding roughshod over sentiments of millions of downtrodden Dalits by changing the names of these districts which were kept after these towering Dalit icons,” Mayawati said. <br /><br />The SP-led state government should be prepared to bear the consequences of this hasty action, the BSP supremo said.<br /></p>