West Bengal assembly passes resolution to rename state as 'Bangla'

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution on Thursday to rename the state as 'Bangla' in three languages -- Bengali, English and Hindi.
The move is aimed at climbing the alphabetical sequence of state names in which West Bengal appears last in the list now.

The state will have to wait for the nod from the Home Ministry for a final approval on the resolution.

Earlier, the Centre had rejected the state government's proposals of having three names Bangla (in Bengali), Bengal (in English) and Bangal (in Hindi).

The Mamata Banerjee government's proposal of renaming West Bengal as "Paschim Bango" in 2011 was also turned down by the Centre.