Kolkata: The 10-member road renaming advisory committee is considering renaming stretches of major arterial roads, including E M Bypass, after Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya Deb. The 33.5-km thoroughfare from the airport to Kamalgazi — covering New Town Major Arterial Road and Salt Lake Bypass, as well as parts of VIP Road and E M Bypass — was named Biswa Bangla Sarani by former CM Mamata Banerjee in 2015. TOI has reported that the committee may recommend that Biswa Bangla Sarani be renamed Shri Krishna Chaitanya Avenue.The committee headed by Swami Pradiptananda (Kartik Maharaj) will also consider renaming a stretch of Garden Reach Road after slain cop Vinod Mehta, the proposal for which was received from a section of the state’s IPS officers on Monday. “We have received proposals from senior police officers to rename a city road after the courageous cop. We will place the proposal at the road renaming committee meeting,” the committee chairman said.At the same time, Lenin Sarani, Karl Marx Sarani and Ho Chi Minh Sarani are among thoroughfares whose renaming is likely to be considered by the committee. Reacting to the proposed renaming of these roads, Swami Pradiptananda said there was no relevance of these names to Indian history and culture. “Do you find these names still relevant?” he asked. The advisory committee, which will hold its first meeting after Durga Puja, will take up proposals for renaming Kolkata’s streets in the first phase, sources said. Among the other members of the panel are former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy, CM’s adviser Subrata Gupta, and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) commissioner Smita Pandey.Swami Pradiptananda on Monday formally started functioning from the KMC headquarters. He has been given a chamber at the KMC headquarters’ VIP corridor. He said the committee had already received 100 proposals for renaming of streets. “We have been receiving proposals for renaming roads after revolutionaries, like Rashbehari Bose, Kshudiram Bose, Prafulla Chaki, Ullaskar Dutta, among others. Citizens are also proposing to rename streets after religious teachers and social reformers. We will be taking a decision collectively after pujas,” he said.The committee will scrutinise proposals from historical, cultural, social and heritage perspectives before making recommendations to the competent authority.“Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Lenin Sarani and Karl Marx Sarani will get new names. Proposals have come for other roads, too,” Kartik Maharaj said. “The members will consider the relevance of the personalities — after whom the roads have been proposed to be named — to Indian and Bengali culture. Our recommendations will be sent to the assembly for final approval.”
