"Feels like Diwali": Locals celebrate change of names of Uttarakhand villages, distribute ladoos

Haridwar (Uttarakhand) [India], April 1 (ANI): Locals in Haridwar district of Uttarakhand on Tuesday celebrated the state government's decision to change the name of Gajiwali village to Arya Nagar, among various other villages to "honour public sentiment, Indian culture and heritage." The had been wanting to have the names changed for a long time.
"The atmosphere is like Diwali or Holi. This was the demand of the villagers for a long time and long ago, we had made a proposal to former minister (Yatishwaranand) Swami too," said a villager, Devendra Singh Negi, to ANI.
"He took a big initiative and reached out to (Pushkar Singh) Dhami. Dhami ji has done the work of changing the name of the village. We celebrated with dhols (drums), distributing sweets, people have taken an off to celebrate," he added.
On Monday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dhami announced the renaming of certain places in Haridwar, Dehradun, Nainital, and Udham Singh Nagar districts of the state.
Another villager, Subodh Kumar Gupta, talking about the change of Gajiwali to Aryanagar told ANI, "I would first like to thank CM Dhami on behalf of all villagers, and this is an initiative for development, the future generations of our children would benefit from this. We used to say that people did not know about us because of the name Gajiwali, and now people will know."
Earlier on Tuesday, CM Dhami, while talking about the decision, told reporters that the decision to rename the 11 places of the four districts of the state was based on the culture and the sentiments of the local people.
"The names of the locations should be according to the culture, sentiments of local people, and Devbhoomi. The people have welcomed this step," CM Dhami said.
This initiative aims to inspire people by honouring great personalities who have contributed to the preservation of Indian culture, according to an official statement.
In Haridwar district, Aurangzebpur will be called Shivaji Nagar, Gajiwali will change to Arya Nagar, Chandpur to Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mohammadpur Jat to Mohanpur Jat, Khanpur Kursli to Ambedkar Nagar, Indrishpur to Nandpur, Khanpur to Shri Krishna Pur, and Akbarpur Fazalpur to Vijayanagar, as per CM Dhami's announcement. (ANI)