Centre approves Uttarakhand govt's proposal to change 'derogatory' village name

The affix 'chamar' from a village named 'Pilkhichamar' in Uttarakhand's Champawat district will now be dropped as the Centre has given nod to the state government's proposal.

Following demands from the locals, who found the name of the village to be derogatory, the Uttarakhand government had proposed to remove the affix 'chamar' from the village's name as they wanted the reference to a particular community to be removed from the name of the village, according to The Economic Times.

The Centre has also approved the Madhya Pradesh government's proposal to rename the village 'Kunchi' to 'Chandangarh', the report said.

The Narendra Modi government in the last five years granted permission to seven proposals to rename cities and towns, including renaming Allahabad as Prayagraj.

Although the process to change a state's name needs an amendment of the Constitution along with a majority in the Parliament, renaming a village or town only requires a no-objection certificate from the Union home ministry, followed by executive order, the report added.