Strong opposition in renaming Bhopal

Bhopal, Mar 11: The Madhya Pradesh government's plan to rename the state capital from Bhopal to Bhojpal appears to have run into rough weather with people from various quarters including Oppposition Congress strongly criticising the idea.

The state government has said that it wants to change the name of the state capital to Bhojpal in honour of the memory of Raja Bhoj. However, those who opposed the move contend that Raja Bhoj had nothing to with Bhopal and hence naming the capital after him would serve no purpose.

According to the state government, if the name of Bombay can be changed to Mumbai, Poona to Pune, Calcutta to Kolkata, Madras to Chennai and Bangalore to Bengaluru then there should be no problem in changing the name of Bhopal to Bhojpal.

Rechristening of these cities did not face any roadblock while this is not the case with Bhopal as a large section of the people do not want the city to be renamed as Bhojpal and feel that it would lose its identity.

The name cannot be changed unless a proposal for it is sent to the Centre and cleared by it, but so far the state government has not taken any step in this direction.

Congress General Secretary, Digvijay Singh said at a time when Madhya Pradesh was facing a large number of problems the BJP government in the state was trying to divert the attention of the people by raising non-serious issues.

"The money that the state government is spending on renaming the state capital could well be spent on various development works," Singh told PTI.

A ''Save Bhopal Initiative'' peace rally is also being organised tomorrow on the VIP road in front of the Raja Bhoj's recenlty installed statue on the issue.

PTI