The latest proposal to change the name of a place in Uttar Pradesh under the BJP government has come from Unnao where a gram panchayat has sought to shed the name ‘Miyaganj’ for ‘Mayaganj’.
Miyan is a word used to address Muslim men in some cultures and as per the 1903 Unnao gazetteer, Miyaganj town was built in 1771 by Miyan Almas Ali Khan, a finance minister under Asaf-ud-Daulah and Sadat Ali Khan. The village was formerly called Bhopatpur.
The proposal for the name change was first raised in a letter by Bamba Lal Diwakar, BJP MLA from Safipur seat in Unnao, on July 31 and passed by the local bodies.
Govt. action sought
Unnao District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar sent a letter to the Additional Chief Secretary Panchayati Raj on August 24 seeking action by the government on the name change.
“The proposal has been sent to the government for further action,” the DM said.
The gram panchayat has not stated any reason for the name change.
Recently, the zilla panchayat in Aligarh passed a proposal to rename it as Harigarh. After coming to power, the Yogi Adityanath government changed the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj and Faizabad to Ayodhya and since then several BJP legislators have made similar demands in Muzaffarnagar, Sultanpur, Agra and Mirzapur districts.
