The Maharashtra government on Friday announced that the Ahmednagar railway station will now be called Ahilyanagar Railway Station. This change was approved by the Union Home Ministry after the state government put forward the proposal.
The move comes soon after Ahmednagar district itself was officially renamed Ahilyanagar district. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who had been strongly pushing for this renaming, expressed his gratitude to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for giving their approval.
According to a statement from his office, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde were also part of the efforts to make this possible.
Last month, Pawar had written to Vaishnaw urging that the station be renamed to align with the city’s new name. “This long-pending demand has now been fulfilled. The renaming holds special significance as we are celebrating the 300th birth anniversary year of Punyashlok Ahilyabai Holkar,” Pawar said.
Many local groups had been pressing the government for the change, arguing that the station name should reflect the identity of the newly renamed city and district. Pawar also mentioned that the government is working on a similar proposal to rename the Aurangabad railway station as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar railway station.
Meanwhile, a separate naming issue has sparked a political row in Karnataka. The Congress-led government there has spoken about renaming Bengaluru’s Shivajinagar metro station after St Mary. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said his government would consider the demand, which was raised by the local Christian community during the annual feast at St Mary’s Basilica.
However, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis strongly criticised this plan. He called it an insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Fadnavis said that the Congress has a long history of disrespecting Shivaji Maharaj, recalling that even former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had made negative remarks about him in his book Discovery of India.
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