THE Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra Government has issued a notification on the change of names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ and ‘Dharashiv’ respectively. The suggestions and objections sought a few months ago have been considered and the decision to change the names at the sub-division, village, taluka and district levels has been taken, the notification issued by the Revenue Department on Friday night said. The decision to rename ‘Aurangabad' as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar' was taken by the MVA when its Government was in the minority but the present dispensation has made it “foolproof”, said Eknath Shinde on Saturday.

 

The decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad was taken in the previous MVA Government’s last Cabinet meeting chaired by the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on June 29, 2022 just before he resigned. However, Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who were sworn in a day later, had said the Thackeray-led dispensation’s decision to rename these places was illegal as it was taken by it after the Governor had asked it to prove majority in the state Assembly. In July last year, the Shinde Government gave a Cabinet approval to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv  respectively.