The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath here, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna told reporters. (File)

The state Cabinet on Tuesday cleared the proposal to rename Faizabad and Allahabad divisions as Ayodhya and Prayagraj respectively.

The decision was taken on the basis of a proposal submitted by the Faizabad district magistrate on November 10. The reason cited was that Ayodhya was the capital of the ‘Ikshvaku dynasty’, to which the Hindu god Ram belonged, and that it is popular known as his birthplace.

The proposal further said that Ayodhya is has been the capital of many estates and dynasties in different time periods.
Moreover, a government spokesperson said that as the headquarters of Allahabad division falls in Prayagraj district, the name of the division should also be changed to ‘Prayagraj division’. The division consists of four districts i.e. Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh.

“Today the proposal to change the names of district Faizabad to division Ayodhya and division Faizabad to division Ayodhya has been cleared by the Cabinet. Ayodhya division will consists of four districts which were part of Faizabad division,” said Cabinet Minister for Urban Development, Suresh Khanna.

He further said, “Another proposal to change the name of Allahabad division to Prayagraj division has been cleared. The districts which were part of Allahabad division will now be part of Prayagraj division.”

The Cabinet also approved a proposal to purchase 269 houses and buildings to widen the road from the Ganga to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. The estimated cost of this would be about Rs 413 crore.

A proposal to table a judicial inquiry report into a 2016 incident — in which 25 people had died and five were injured in Katesar and Domri villages of Varanasi district during a ‘Shobha Yatra’ — in the Legislative Assembly also got the green signal.