Renaming of UP's Basti district after Maharihsi Vashishth on the cards

The renaming of Basti district after Maharihsi Vashishth appears to be on the cards with the local administration sending a proposal on this to the state's revenue board.

District Magistrate Ashutosh Niranjan said the proposal to change the name of the district has been sent to the revenue board and the expenditure for it is pegged around Rs 1 crore.

The Adityanath government has changed the name Allahabad to Prayagraj and Faizabad to Ayodhya. It has also renamed Mughalsarai railway station after Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

According to officials, about a year ago during Basti Mahotsav, Chief Minister Adityanath had announced that Basti Medical College will be named after Maharihsi Vashishth, who according to Hindu mythology was the guru of Lord Rama.

After that announcement, a number of people including MP Harish Dwivedi and MLA Ajay Kumar Singh demanded changing the name of the district.

On November 28 last year, the proposal of changing the name of the district was sent to the Revenue Board which sought an estimated cost for the purpose, officials said.

Following proper analysis on the expenditure which is likely to be incurred District magistrate Ashutosh Niranjan sent the revised report to Commissioner Anil Kumar Sagar who in turn forwarded it to the the government, they added.

Some believe that Basti was earlier known as Vaishishthi.

According to Hindu mythology, the modern day Basti district was the ashram of Sage Vashishth the teacher of Lord Ram and his brother Lakshman.