Maharashtra cabinet decides to rename colonies that have caste-based names

Mumbai, Dec 03: The Maharashtra cabinet has come to a decision and cleared a proposal to rename colonies and areas that have caste-based names. Instead, it will be named after social workers and leaders or their related work.

According to reports, most of the cases that are likely to be withdrawn are of those registered against political workers and leaders for their agitations over various issues.

Several rural as well as urban areas are named after castes such as Maharwada, Mangwada, Bhrahmanwada, Mali Galli, Dhorvasti, among others. According to Munde, such names do not suit a "progressive" state like Maharashtra.

A statement from Munde's office said, "Keeping that in mind and to maintain social harmony and goodwill in the state to increase national unity, all caste-based names of areas and localities in rural and urban parts of the state will be changed. They will be named after social workers or something corresponding to their work, for example, Samata Nagar, Bhim Nagar, Jyoti Nagar, Kranti Nagar."

The urban development department will decide on the process in urban areas, while the rural development department will do the same for their areas, the statement added.

In 2012, the government changed the name of an award by dropping the word Dalit from it and renamed it Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Samaj Bhushan Award. The state government had already issued a government resolution in September 2019 to drop the use of the word Dalit from all government correspondences and schemes. All correspondences now use scheduled caste and Nav Bouddha instead.

On the proposal to withdraw social and political cases, the earlier Devendra Fadnavis government, soon after assuming power, had taken a decision to withdraw such cases registered before November 1, 2014. The current Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government extended the period to December 21, 2019. The government also dissolved the committee appointed under the finance minister by the earlier government to review such cases and has allotted power to the home minister.