TMC delegation meets PM, demands steps to rename West Bengal

A delegation of Trinamool Congress lawmakers met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament on Wednesday and submitted a memorandum, urging him to take steps to change the name of West Bengal, a demand for which has been pending with the Centre.

The 12-member delegation led by Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandopadhyay requested the prime minister to bring in a legislation to amend the name of West Bengal to "Bangla".

They also submitted all the letters written by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the Centre over the renaming of the state.

The delegation also raised the issue of disinvestment of Public Sector Undertakings or PSUs with prime minister.

Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Ray also raised the renaming issue during the zero hour on Wednesday.

He said that "no geographical territory ever existed officially to be known as East Bengal".

"The word Bangla or the territory called Bangla is believed to have been derived from Banga, a Dravidian tribe that settled in the region 1000 BCE," he added.

In July 2018, the West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution recommending that the state should be renamed as "Bangla".

The Home Ministry which is the arbitrator in the issue has not taken any step so far in accepting the assembly's demand.

Ray pointed out that after the Partition in 1947, following the award passed by the boundary commission, commonly known as Radcliffe Commission, the eastern districts of Bengal became east Pakistan which later became an independent country of Bangladesh.