Maharashtra govt issues notification on change of names of Aurangabad, Osmanabad districts

The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has issued a notification on the change of names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively.

The suggestions and objections sought a few months ago have been considered and the decision to change the names at the sub-division, village, taluka and district levels has been taken, the notification issued by the Revenue Department on Friday night said.

The decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad was taken in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s last cabinet meeting chaired by the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on 29 June, 2022 just before he resigned.

However, Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who were sworn in a day later, had said the Thackeray-led dispensation’s decision to rename these places was illegal as it was taken by it after the governor had asked it to prove majority in the state assembly.

In July last year, the Shinde government gave a cabinet approval to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively.

In the MVA government's last cabinet meeting, Aurangabad was renamed as Sambhajinagar, but the Shinde government added 'Chhatrapati' prefix to it.