No proposal to amend Constitution to change name of W Bengal

There is no proposal to make amendments in the Constitution to change the name of West Bengal to 'Bangla', the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

"To change name of any state, constitutional amendment is required. There is no proposal to amend Constitution as of now," Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said.

He was replying to a query on why the Centre was rejecting the West Bengal government proposal to change the name of state to 'Bangla'.

Rai mentioned that name 'Bangla' has similarities to 'Bangladesh".

On July 26 last year, the West Bengal Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution to change the name of the state to 'Bangla' in the three most-spoken languages -- Bengali, Hindi and English -- and had sent the proposal to the Home Ministry.

In his written reply, the minister said, "Administrative guidelines for change in the name of villages/towns/railway stations, etc. are already in place whereby States/UTs are required to seek No Objection from the Ministry of Home Affairs".

He informed that whenever there is any proposal to change the name of village/towns/railways/airports, the ministry seeks view from departments concerned and based on that decisions are taken.

Rai said NOCs are issued in most of the cases.