Maharashtra dumps caste names for places; govt passes resolution

All localities in Maharashtra named after different castes will be renamed after historical leaders or any other name which is socially acceptable.

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The state cabinet of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government passed a resolution to this effect on Wednesday and has instructed the concerned departments – in cities and rural areas – to identify all areas or settlements identified by caste.

“Some settlements in various cities and villages of Maharashtra have caste-based names such as Maharwada, Mangwada, Brahmanwada and so on. Names based on such caste divisions don’t suit our progressive state,” Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde said in a statement. “To promote social harmony and a feeling of national unity, the social justice department sent a proposal to the state cabinet to change all such names to names of great leaders or appropriate names such as Samatanagar, Bhimnagar, Jyotinagar, Krantinagar and so on,” he added.

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NCP president Sharad Pawar too had expressed displeasure at such caste-based names, following which Munde directed his department to draft a proposal to change these.

The erstwhile Fadnavis government had in September 2019 omitted the word ‘Dalit’ from all government correspondence and replace it with ‘Scheduled Castes’ or ‘neo-Buddhists’.

In 2011, the then Congress-NCP government had decided to change the name of ‘Dalit Vasti Sudhar Yojana’ to ‘Scheduled Caste and Neo-Buddhist Vasti Sudhar Yojana’.

The next year, the state government decided to change the name of Dr Balasaheb Ambedkar Dalit Mitra Puraskar to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Samaj Bhushan Puraskar.