West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's proposal to rename the state as 'Bangla'.
The MoS Home in the Parliament said that there is no question of change in the name of Bengal to 'Bangla' because as per the Ministry of Home affairs it needs an constitutional amendment.
Earlier, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy demanded in the House that West Bengal be renamed Bangla in three languages — Bengali, English, and Hindi — in deference to Bengali identity.
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He went on to claim that the resolution has been since pending for Central government's consideration. He stressed that the Mamata Banerjee-led state government got the resolution passed in order to "restore the identity of Bengali people".
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray told the reporter that in July 2018, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly passed a resolution that West Bengal should be renamed as Bangla and it was since pending for consideration at the end of the central government.
Mamata Banerjee's efforts to rename the state as 'Bangla' have again faced obstacle from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) earlier too when he the Union Home Ministry wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), sharing concerns that the new name may sound like Bangladesh and it would be difficult to differentiate the two at international forums.
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