Bengal governor against rechristening Jyoti Basu township

Kolkata, Nov 27 (IANS) West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan Wednesday disapproved of the Trinamool Congress government's move to withdraw a bill that named a township in the city after former chief minister Jyoti Basu.

"Well, I'm certainly not in favour of change of name," Narayanan told mediapersons on the sidelines of a programme here.

The Trinamool regime of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday withdrew in the state assembly the New Town, Kolkata Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2011 passed by the erstwhile Left Front regime that had included a proposal to name the New Town area as Jyoti Basu Nagar.

Disregarding strong protests from opposition Left Front members, the government replaced the legislation by the New Town, Kolkata Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which had no provision about the township's nomenclature.

The township, conceived during Basu's tenure, was named after him through a gazette notification in 2010. The New Town, Kolkata Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2011, had a clause which referred to the nomenclature.

Born July 8, 1914, Basu was state chief minister for 23 years till he voluntarily stepped down in 2000 due to old age and health problems. State Minister for Urban Development Firhad Hakim said the new bill aimed at relaying the tax system of the township, from that envisaged in the old legislation.

On the other hand, the Left Front termed as "politically motivated" the withdrawal of the old bill and its replacement with a new one.

Our Governor usually gives sage advice but here, I beg to disagree with him.

Being Head of a state, and especially a Congress appointee, he has to say all the correct things.

Just imagine, if the some party came to power and started re-naming all the projects name after three Congress personalities, J. L. Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi?

How would the Congress like it?

So naturally our Governor would object.

But Jyoti Basu was the destroyer of Bengal and I fully support the TMC in not naming anything after him.