A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed on Wednesday in the Bombay High Court challenging the current Maharashtra government’s decision to change the name of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar.
The PIL has been filed by residents of Aurangabad Mohammed Mushtaq Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare and Rajesh More and alleges, “the purpose behind changing the name of Aurangabad is to spread hatred among the community towards Muslims so as to gain political advantage.”
On June 29, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had changed the name of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar and next day when the new CM Eknath Shinde was sworn in, the name of the city was changed to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
The PIL mentions, “The city of Aurangabad is part of history and has a rich culture, and political parties like the Shiv Sena have been trying to change the name to gain political mileage. In the year 2001, the State government had made an attempt to change the name of Aurangabad city but it was aborted. However, the previous government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray unauthorisedly at its fag end raised the issue of changing the name of Aurangabad in the last cabinet meeting for political considerations. The present government led by CM Eknath Shinde re-affirmed the decision without taking into consideration public sentiments and in complete disregard to provisions of the Constitution,” the PIL states.
The PIL is expected to be heard next week.
