The Centre has not yet cleared the proposal of the West Bengal government to change the name of the State to ‘Bangla’, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in a written response in the Rajya Sabha to a question from MP Ritabrata Banerjee on Wednesday.

“No, sir,” he said adding that changing a State’s name requires constitutional amendment and it is done after taking into consideration all relevant factors.

On July 26 last year, the West Bengal Assembly had passed a resolution unanimously to change the name in the three most-spoken languages — Bengali, Hindi and English — and had sent the proposal to the Home Ministry. It suggested ‘Paschimbanga’ in 2011 but it was turned down by the Central government.

In 2016, it proposed ‘Bengal’ in English, ‘Bangla’ in Bengali and ‘Bangal’ in Hindi, which was also turned down. Finally, it proposed ‘Bangla’ last year.

The Ministry of External Affairs objected to the proposals suggesting ‘Bangla’ had similarity to Bangladesh and it would be difficult to differentiate the two at international forums.

Describing the re-naming to be in consonance with the history, culture and identity of the State, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to bring an amendment for the same in the current session of Parliament. She said the Chief Secretary of the State had communicated this position to the Union Home Secretary on August 21, 2018.

(With inputs from Kolkata)