Security upped at Maharashtra's Aurangabad station amid renaming row

In view of the ongoing row over the renaming of Aurangabad in Maharashtra, the Railway Police Force has stepped up security at the city's railway station to prevent any untoward incident, an official said on Tuesday.

The issue of renaming Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar has come to the forefront of state politics over the last few days.

Personnel from the Railway Police Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) have been deployed for constant patrolling, inspector Arvind Kumar Sharma of the RPF said.

"We are only allowing people with valid tickets to wait on platforms," the official in-charge of the security on the station premises said.

There is only a single-point entry to the station and RFP personnel are deployed at both ends of platforms that have signboards bearing the station name, he said.

The measures are being taken, as in 2019, a video went viral on social media of some youths trying to vandalise the station signboards, by painting over them and pasting the name Sambhajinagar, the official said.

The Shiv Sena had first made the demand to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar over two decades ago, and a proposal was passed in the Aurangabad Municiapl Corporation in June 1995, which was challenged by a Congress corporator in the high court and later in the Supreme Court.

The Congress last week reiterated its opposition to renaming Aurangabad even as the Sena said the name change would happen soon, but the issue would not rock the coalition govt in the state.