Mamata's plans to rename railway stations hit roadblock

Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is facing stiff opposition – both from her political allies, the Congress, and arch rivals CPM – in renaming railway stations.

While the Left Front government in West Bengal made sure that Banerjee was not allowed to rename railway stations in the state, Congress-ruled Assam too raised objections. This, forced the Union home ministry to deny the Railways the mandatory go-ahead it needs to rename important stations.

In her Budget speech, Banerjee had promised to rename the existing Park Street Metro rail station after Mother Teresa and the Chandi Chowk station after Tipu Sultan.

With the assembly elections just a few months away, the state government is making sure that Banerjee does not score kudos points with the voters and did not bother to respond to the proposals of the railway ministry. Subsequently, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government did not send its recommendation to the Union home ministry.

While renaming of airports requires approval from the Union Cabinet, to rename railway stations the home ministry needs to give clearance. The final clearance is given only after assessing the possible social and law and order impact if there was a change of name.

While the proposal for changing the names of the Kolkata Metro stations is pending since April, Banerjee’s plans of naming the Silchar station in Assam as Bhasha Shaheed (as a tribute to the martyrs of the language movement) hit a stone wall, with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi vehemently opposing it.

Gogoi told the Centre any move in this direction would further divide the Assamese speaking population and Bengali speaking people in the state. Subsequently, the home ministry, in a communique, denied permission to the Railway Board to change the name.

However, there is no one to stop her from naming the several new stations coming up across the country, as it does not require permission from respective state governments.