The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the renaming of Kolkata Port as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, after the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
The decision was announced by Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar at a press briefing after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a statement, the government said the Board of Trustees of the Kolkata Port Trust had passed a resolution to rename the port after Mookerjee at its meeting on February 25, “considering his multifaceted genius as an eminent jurist, academician, thinker and leader of the masses”.
The decision was announced on January 12 at the inaugural ceremony of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the port.
“Keeping in view the sentiments of the people of West Bengal, it was announced that Kolkata Port will be re-named after Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, one of the most deserving sons of West Bengal and a front-runner in national integration, dreamer of Bengal’s development, inspiration for industrialisation and ardent votary of one law for one nation,” the statement said.
The statement said that while major ports in the country were named after the city or town they are located in, some ports in special cases of “due consideration of contribution made by eminent leaders have been re-named after great national leaders in the past”.
