Ahmednagar will now be known as Ahilya Nagar; Name changed by Shinde cabinet

The Maharashtra government has taken many major decisions in the cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. The Shinde cabinet has renamed Ahmadganar district to Ahilya Nagar. Along with this, the Maharashtra Cabinet has decided to change the names of eight Mumbai railway stations. The Maharashtra Cabinet has decided that stations with British era names will be renamed. Along with this, the Cabinet has also approved the construction of a sea link between Uttan (Bhayander) and Virar (Palghar). Among the decisions taken by the cabinet is the decision to purchase 2.5 acres of land for constructing Maharashtra Bhavan in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. It is worth noting that the budget proposal for this had already been made in the state budget in the last budget session of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha.

It is significant that the demand to change the name of Ahmednagar was going on for a long time. In the year 2022, BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar wrote a letter to the then CM Uddhav Thackeray asking to change the name of the district to "Ahilyanagar". He said in the letter that Ahmednagar is the birth place of Rani Ahilya Devi Holkar. Hence the name of Ahmednagar city is like Badalkar Ahilyanagar Karna Karna Karna Karna Karne Samman Karna Ahilya Devi Holkar. In the letter sent to the Chief Minister, Padalkar wrote that it is not just his demand, but the sentiment of the people that Ahmednagar should be named Ahilyanagar. He said that when Mughal soldiers were demolishing Hindu temples, Ahilya Devi Holkar saved Hindu culture by rebuilding them. So he is ideal for every Hindu.

Earlier, the Shinde government had renamed Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively. In the last cabinet meeting of the MVA government, Aurangabad was renamed to Sambhajinagar, but the Shinde government added the word 'Chhatrapati' to it.

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