The Centre on Friday greenlighted the renaming of two cities-Aurangabad and Osmanabad- in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis shared the news on his Twitter.
While the city of Aurangabad derives its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the Osmanabad city was named for a 20th century ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad.
New names of two cities
Aurangabad will now be known as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ while Osmanabad city is renamed as ‘Dharashiv’.
Chhatrapati Sambhaji was the eldest son of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He was also the second ruler of the Maratha state founded by Shivaji. Sambhaji Maharaj was killed in 1689 on Aurangzeb’s orders.
‘Dharashiv’, the new name for Osmanabad, is a cave complex near the Osmanabad city. According to experts, Dharashiv dates back to the 8th century.
For long, the Hindu right-wing organisations had been demanding the name change for the two cities.
Decision historic
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s office termed the Centre’s decision to approve the name change of Aurangabad and Osmanabad as historic. “We sincerely thank PM Modi and Amit Shah. It was a dream of Balasaheb Thackeray which is now fulfilled,” said Shinde.
Devendra Fadnavis shares letters on Twitter
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has tweeted two letters from the Home Ministry dated February 24. The letters were written by Home Ministry to the deputy secretary of the state General Administration Department.
The letters said Union government had no objection to the name change these two Maharashtra cities.
Meanwhile, Devendra Fadnavis has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for the move.
Fadnavis said the promise made by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has been fulfilled.
(With PTI inputs)