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Journalism of Courage
Hasmukh Patel, the BJP MP from Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha constituency, on Wednesday said that no fresh demand has been made to change the name of Ahmedabad city to Karnavati.
Patel was addressing mediapersons along with Kirit Solanki, party MP from Ahmedabad West Lok Sabha constituency, on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government completing nine years in power. Ahmedabad city BJP president and Ellisbridge MLA Amit Shah was also present at the event.
Asked why couldn’t BJP rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati – its long-pending demand – even after nine years of being in power at the Centre, Solanki said: “Names of a lot of cities like Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai have been changed. There is specific procedure and technicality for this. I think some time could have been taken to complete the technicalities.”
Following this, Amit Shah said, “When the dossier for heritage city status (for Ahmedabad) was prepared, the name of the city was written as Ahmedabad and not Karnavati. I believe that by changing the name of the city to Karnavati, the city loses its (UNESCO) world heritage city status. I believe that is the reason why the name has not been changed.”
Subsequently, Patel said that it was indeed the demand of the BJP to change the name of the city from Ahmedabad to Karnavati. “But if Ahmedabad gets heritage status then it can increase the number of tourists and as a result increase employment. Therefore, we have accepted (the name) Ahmedabad,” he added.
Asked if the party has dropped the demand to rename the city to Karnavati, Patel said, “Currently, we have not made any new (fresh) demand.”
Ahmedabad was conferred with the UNESCO world heritage city status in 2017.
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