West Bengal state assembly dominated by Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Government has unanimously passed a resolution to change the state’s name to ‘Bangla’ in all three languages – Bengali, Hindi and English.
- The name change will only become official when the resolution gets approval from the Union Home Ministry and the Parliament passes the Bill.
Reason cited by the State Government for the name change:
- The main reason cited by the State Government for changing the name of West Bengal to Bangla is that whenever there is a meeting of all states, West Bengal figures at the bottom of the list, as it is prepared according to alphabetical order.
- With change in its name to Bangla, it will appear (or leapfrog) to fourth place after Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in list of states in alphabetical order.
Developments in the past:
- The move of West Bengal state assembly to change the name of the state comes almost two years after it first passed a resolution to change the name of the State in August 2016.
- The state government had earlier submitted a proposal to the Centre to change the name of West Bengal to Bengal in English, Bangla in Bengali and Bangal in Hindi.
- The proposal was turned down by Union Home Ministry.
What is the procedure of changing name of a state?
- The process for changing the name of a state can be initiated by the state itself.
- However, by virtue of article 3 of Constitution, Parliament has the power to change the name of a state even if such proposal does not come from the concerned state.
- If initiated by state assembly, it will first pass a resolution for such change and this passed resolution will be sent to the Central government (Union Home Ministry).
- Then, the Union Home Ministry prepares a note for the Union Cabinet for amendment to Schedule 1 of the Constitution.
- Thereafter, Constitution Amendment Bill is introduced in Parliament under Article 3 of Constitution, which has to be approved with simple majority, before President gives his assent to it.
- Thereafter, the name of the state will be changed.
- An example of such change is the change in the name of Orissa to Odisha.
- The Government of Orissa initiated this change in 2008 when it forwarded resolution passed by State Legislative Assembly to the Union Government to change the name of the state from Orissa to Odisha.
- This bill was passed by Parliament as Orissa (Alteration of Name) Act, 2010 to rename the state.
Questions:
Q1. Which State Government has unanimously passed a resolution to change the state’s name?a. Tamil Nadu
b. West Bengal
c. Odisha
d. None of the above
Q2. Who has the power to change the name of a state even if such proposal does not come from the concerned state?
a. Parliament
b. RBI
c. CBI
d. None of the above
