Govt move on Osmanabad renaming stayed

AURANGABAD, Aug 12: The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has stayed the Maharashtra government's move to rename Osmanabad distri...

AURANGABAD, Aug 12: The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has stayed the Maharashtra government’s move to rename Osmanabad district as Dharashiv’ following a petition filed by the Anti-Renaming Action Committee.

Monday was the last date for submission of objections to the renaming proposal, which the Shiv Sena-BJP government had invited vide a notification dated June 12, 1998.

The committee, which comprises a cross-section of the district’s residents, has challenged the validity of the notification issued under Section 4 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, saying its provisions pertain exclusively to the nomenclature of a new district, taluka or village. They therefore cannot be applied to renaming an existing district, whose boundaries have not changed in any respect.

The petitioners point out that there are in fact no provisions in any existing code, rule, act or statue for renaming a district, village, taluka or sub-division.

The committee, headed by Qazi-Abdul Rashid, has alsoexpressed surprise at the alliance government’s proposal since there has been no demand to that effect from within the district. “In fact, the Osmanabad Municipal Council and a host of other gram panchayats have passed resolutions opposing any move to rename the district,” the petitioners say.

Counsel for the petitioner, M A Latif, contends that the names of cities and districts in India reflect the composite culture of the country and it is unthinkable to replace the name of say, Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir with any other name or Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

The case will come up for hearing before a Division Bench comprising Justices N P Chapalgaonkar and M H Marlapalley on August 17.