Mamata Banerjee renames six townships

PTI, Kolkata, April 24, 201: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday renamed six townships in the state, officials said. 

Among them, Siliguri will be known as Teesta — a major river in North Bengal — and Bolpur as Gitabitan, a popular compilation of songs of Rabindranath Tagore. 

The twin industrial towns of Asansol-Durgapur will be known as ‘Agnibina’, a collection of poems by poet Kazi Najrul Islam. Gajaldoba in Malda district has been rechristened as ‘Mukta Tirtha’ while Garia near Kolkata will become ‘Uttam City’, after the late matinee idol Uttam Kumar. 

Mamata also renamed Kalyani, the township in Nadia district developed during the time of Bidhan Chandra Roy’s chief ministership, as ‘Samriddhi’. 

A seventh satellite township, ‘Viswa-Bangla’ will come up later near the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in the city to house government employees. Mamata had also renamed several stations of Metro Rail in the city when she was the railway minister.