UP's higher education panel's website hacked, last name 'Allahabadi' of famous poets changed to 'Prayagraj': report

A complaint about the incident has been lodged with the Cyber Cell of the police in Prayagraj.

The website of Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Service Commission was hacked on Tuesday with the hackers replacing the last name "Allahabadi" of some renowned poets with "Praygaraj" in an "apparent resentment" of the change of the name this historical city, an official said.

The Prayagraj-based commission, however, was able to restore its Hindi website and the work is on to restore its English portal, commission chairman Ishwar Charan Vishvaarma told PTI. A complaint about the incident has been lodged with the Cyber Cell of the city police to nab the culprits, Dr Vishvakarma said.

"It was evidently a handiwork of some miscreants expressing their apparent resentment over the change of name of Allahabad," Dr Vishvakarma said, taking pains to explain that the commission had no role in corrupting the website. The renowned poets and litterateurs whose last name "Allahabadi" was replaced by Prayagraj included Akbar Allahabadi, Tej Allahabadi and Rasheed Allahabadi, the commission's chairman said, adding these names have been corrected in the Hindi website and the work is on to correct them in the English portal of the commission.

The names of renowned poets and litterateurs had figured on the portal in one of its sections on the Uttar Pradesh city of Allahabad whose name was recently changed to Prayagraj. The litterateurs whose names figured on the commission's website included Syed Akbar Hussain alias Akbar Allahabadi, Noor Narbee, Teg Allahabadi, Shabnam Naqvi and Rasheed Allahabadi.

Reacting to the incident, Prayagraj-based journalist Dhananjay Chopra, also a noted litterateur, said the city of Allahabad is recorded in the pages of history. "The writers and poets like Akbar Allahabadi and Rasheed Allahabadi have lived in the city, experiencing its life and times and that is why they suffixed their names with Allahabadi. Changing the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj is akin to changing the history," he said.