New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janata Party chief in Delhi, Adesh Gupta, said on Wednesday that from today the name of south Delhi’s Mohammadpur village has been changed to Madhavpuram. He said that since the Aam Aadmi Party-led government did not act on the proposal submitted by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation in December, the party members have renamed the place on their own.
Taking to Twitter, Gupta along with senior party leaders put up a board with ‘Welcome to Madhavpuram’ written on it at the entrance of the village and said that Mohammadpur is now Madhavpuram.
“After the municipal corporation approved the proposal to change the name to Madhavpuram, the renaming process was completed today. From now on, this village will be called Madhavpuram instead of Mohammadpur. Residents of Delhi don’t want any symbol of slavery to be a part of the city after 75 years of Independence,” Gupta said on Twitter and posted pictures of the board.
The Delhi government has not approved the proposal by the corporation yet and to rename roads, and villages, the proposal has to be approved by the state naming authority.
Delhi's Mohammadpur comes under the New Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency and the elected MP Meenakshi Lekhi has not reacted to Adesh Gupta's announcement. Local MLA Pramila Tokas has not responded to the BJP's declaration yet.
Delhi BJP President Adesh Gupta plans to change the names of 40 villages in the national capital
This comes after the Gupta, who lead his party's 'bulldozer' campaign against encroachment by Rohingyas and Bangladeshis, on Saturday announced his plan for changing the Muslim names of 40 villages in the national capital.
In a press conference, Gupta said that the party will send a proposal to the Kejriwal government demanding a change of names of 40 villages in the city that symbolise a period of "slavery".
"Nobody wants to live with a mindset of slavery that these names denote. I have received requests from several villagers for changing names of their villages", a PTI report quoted Gupta as saying. BJP-ruled South MCD passed a resolution to change the name of village Mohammadpur to Madhavpuram but Delhi government is sitting over it and not approving it, he claimed.
"Local BJP councillor Bhagat Singh Tokas got a resolution passed by the corporation and had the town planning department send a letter signed by all villagers to the Delhi government's Urban Development department on December 9 last year," Gupta said.
Apart from Mohammadpur village, there are 40 other such villages whose names villagers want to be changed, said Gupta. These 40 villages include Humayunpur, Yusuf Sarai, Masoodpur, Zamroodpur, Begumpur, Saidul Ajab, Fatehpur Beri, Hauz Khas, and Sheikh Sarai to name a few, he said.
Aam Aadmi Party in a statement said that Delhi has a 'State Naming Authority' for all such matters, and if any such proposal has been received it will be appropriately reviewed and dealt with under due procedure by the concerned body.