Kolkata’s road renaming process will now include public notices, objections and hearings after controversy over the proposed change to Suhrawardy Avenue in Park Circus, with the West Bengal government setting up a 10-member committee to examine future proposals.
The committee was announced on Saturday as officials said the government did not want to rush changes to the names of roads, avenues and streets. A senior state government official said a public notice would be issued whenever a renaming proposal was received, with the notice widely circulated and a deadline fixed for objections and suggestions.
People objecting to a proposed name would then be invited to present their views at a hearing. After considering the claims and objections, the committee would prepare a final proposal in consultation with its chairperson. The proposal would subsequently be sent to the state government or the Assembly, depending on the required approval process, the official said.
An order issued by state chief secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal said the committee would examine the historical, cultural, social, heritage and public significance of proposed names and assess their suitability. The panel is headed by Kartik Maharaj of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha.
Its members include representatives of the urban development and municipal affairs department, the West Bengal Heritage Commission, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the information and cultural affairs department, the Public Works Department, and the home and hill affairs department. Former BJP state president Tathagata Roy and Subrata Gupta, chief advisor to the chief minister, are also members.
The committee’s office will be set up at the KMC headquarters on SN Banerjee Road, where the hearings will be held. The chairperson will decide the date of the first meeting. Kartik Maharaj said the members had only recently been named and that the first meeting would be scheduled after the Durga Puja celebrations. He also said the committee planned to meet once a week.
The new procedure follows the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s announcement on June 20 that Suhrawardy Avenue would be renamed Gopal Mukherjee Road. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had supported the decision, saying roads should not be named after people who had blood on their hands. The statement triggered controversy after he appeared to confuse scholar Hassan Suhrawardy with Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the political figure associated with the description “Butcher of Bengal”.
The committee’s proposed process places historical and heritage assessment, as well as public objections, inside the formal road-renaming procedure. The government official said the administration would not move ahead in haste, while the date of the panel’s first meeting remains to be announced.
