TMC seeks renaming of West Bengal as ‘Bangla’

New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday demanded renaming of West Bengal as ‘Bangla’, saying this carries the signature of the state’s history and culture.

Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention in the Rajya Sabha, party MP Ritabrata Banerjee said the West Bengal Assembly had in July 2018 unanimously passed a resolution for renaming the state but the Centre has not yet agreed to it.

He said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the “re-christening will be in consonance with the history, culture, and identity of our state and will reflect the aspirations of our people”.

The 1947 partition divided Bengal — the Indian side was called West Bengal and the other side was named East Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan declared independence and a new nation of Bangladesh was formed.

Today, there is no East Pakistan, he said. “Our state’s name needs to be changed. The mandate of the people of West Bengal needs to be honoured.”

The name of any state was last changed in 2011, when Orissa became Odisha.

Many cities have seen name changes over the years. These include Bombay, which was changed to Mumbai in 1995, Madras to Chennai in 1996, Calcutta to Kolkata in 2001, and Bangalore to Bengaluru in 2014.

BJD’s Debashish Samantaray sought national festival status for Bali Jatra.

The festival is held on the banks of Mahanadi river every year to mark the time of the year when mariners from the state set sail to Bali, Sumatra and Java in Indonesia, Borneo and Sri Lanka in ancient times for the expansion of trade and culture.

Saket Gokhale of TMC wanted the benefit of cheaper ethanol in petrol be passed to consumers while his party colleague Sushmita Dev wanted river Barak in Assam to be dredged and the waterway to be used for movement of goods.

BJP’s Kavita Patidar demanded water conservation methods such as ground water recharging be used to solve the problem of flooding of railway line underpasses.

PT Usha (Nominated) sought setting up of AIIMS at Kinaloor in Kozhikode district of Kerala.

Raising the issue of impact of climate change on agriculture, S Selvaganabathy (BJP) said erratic weather patterns have impacted crop yield, causing great loss to farmers.

He wanted new varieties of seeds that withstand weather vagaries to be tested.