CPI-M demands new bill renaming township after Jyoti Basu

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday demanded that West Bengal's Trinamool Congress government introduce a new bill restoring the nomenclature of a sprawling township on the city's eastern fringes after former chief minister Jyoti Basu.

A day after Governor M.K. Narayanan disapproved of the state government's move to withdraw a bill passed by the erstwhile Left Front regime that had named New Town as Jyoti Basu Nagar, Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra said the Left would continue to protest till they got "justice".

"We want that a bill should be brought in, amending the exclusion of Jyoti Basu's name from the nomenclature of the township. In other words, we want an amendment of the amendment that the government has done (by withdrawing the earlier bill)," Mishra told reporters here.

Thanking the governor for his stand, he said: "Unless and until we get justice our protests will go on."

Speaking to reporters on the sideline of a programme here Wednesday, Narayanan had said: "Well, I'm certainly not in favour of change of name."

The Trinamool regime of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday withdrew in the state assembly the New Town, Kolkata Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2011 passed by its predecessor Left Front that had included a proposal to name the New Town area as Jyoti Basu Nagar.

Disregarding strong protests from Left Front members, the government replaced the legislation by the New Town, Kolkata Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which had no provision about the township's nomenclature.

The township, conceived during Basu's tenure, was named after him through a gazette notification in 2010. The New Town, Kolkata Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2011, had a clause which referred to the nomenclature.

Born July 8, 1914, Basu was state chief minister for 23 years till he voluntarily stepped down in 2000 due to old age and health problems.

Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said the new bill aimed at relaying the tax system of the township, from that envisaged in the old legislation.

On the other hand, the Left Front termed as "politically motivated" the withdrawal of the old bill and its replacement with a new one.