The Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government on Tuesday issued a gazette renaming Islampur as Ishwarpur and Islampur Nagar Parishad as Urun Ishwarpur Nagar Parishad.
Last month, the Central government’s national mapping agency, Survey of India, officially approved the name. On July 18, the state government had passed the municipality’s proposal to rename Islampur as ‘Ishwarpur’ in the legislative assembly and forwarded it to the Union government for final clearance.
“The power to change names lies with the Centre. The State Cabinet has done its part by approving the decision and sent the proposal to the Union government for approval,” Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal had said while putting the proposal in the assembly.
Following this approval, directives were issued to the Indian Post Department and Indian Railways to update the city’s name across their systems and offices, Times of India reported.
The decision followed a proposal from Shiv Pratisthan, a Hindutva organisation, urging the Sangli collectorate to change Islampur’s name to Ishwarpur. Shiv Pratisthan is led by Sambhaji Bhide, whose supporters have declared that they will not rest until their demand is fulfilled. A Shiv Sena leader from Islampur stated that the call for a name change has been ongoing since 1986.
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