Gurgaon city has officially been renamed Gurugram. More than six months after the process to rename the city was initiated, the Haryana government has now issued a gazette notification to this effect.
The process to rename Gurgaon district is still in the pipeline and may take another week for it to be notified.
The notification to change the name of Gurgaon city was sent over a week ago after the Haryana government got a ‘No-Objection Certificate’ from the Centre in this regard earlier this month.
The delay in changing the name of Gurgaon district came as the approval from the Haryana Cabinet came only on October 18.
“We wanted to rename both the city and the district at the same time to avoid confusion. However, the approval for the district came late. Now it has been sent to the legal department and the notification may take a few more days after it is cleared by the department,” said a senior Haryana government official.
The Haryana government had in April floated the proposal to rename Gurgaon as Gurugram based on the historic connect of the city with Guru Dronacharya. The decision to change the name of Gurgaon was taken on the basis of representations received at several forums.
Legend has it that the town derived its name from the name of Guru Dronacharya.
The village was given to him as “guru dakshina” by the Pandavas, who were his students. It came to be known as Guru gram, which in time became Gurgaon.
The government’s decision to change the name of the city, however, has evoked mixed reactions.
Name game
While local BJP leaders welcomed the move, rival political parties called it a cosmetic measure and advised the government to concentrate on improving the infrastructure in the city instead. The youth, however, felt the name did not go well with the reputation of the city and sounded old-fashioned.
Meanwhile, social activist Vinita Singh has started a petition against the move on Change.org.
She has argued that the citizens of Gurgaon were not consulted on this issue.
She has demanded public consultation before approval of the Haryana Cabinet in this matter.
Opposition calls the move a cosmetic measure; youth
say name sounds old-fashioned
