7 RCR is now 7 LKM!
21 Sep 2016 11:07 PM GMT
A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) presided by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. A notification will be issued soon to complete the process of renaming the road.
The NDMC has also decided to rename the Gurudwara Rakabganj round-about adjacent to the Parliament Complex as Guru Gobind Singh Chowk following representations from various Sikh organisations.
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who is a member of the NDMC Council, had proposed renaming Race Course Road as Ekatma Marg based on the philosophy of the party’s ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay, but it was not accepted. At the meeting, Kejriwal proposed to rename Race Course Road after Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, but some members were not convinced.
“I had proposed the renaming of the road after Guru Govind Singh while Lekhi said it should be renamed as Ekatma Marg. I suggested that the PM be consulted on this but the Council members decided that on the basis of suggestions received from the public, the road should be renamed as Lok Kalyan Marg,” Kejriwal said.
Once the notification is issued, the Prime Minister’s famous residential address 7 Race Course Road
will be known as 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.
AAP MLA Surinder Singh, also a member of the Council, opposed Lekhi’s proposal to rename the road as
Ekatma Marg. NDMC chairperson Naresh Kumar said it was a unanimous decision to change the name of the road to Lok Kalyan Marg.
The change of name of Gurdwara Rakabganj round-about to Guru Gobind Singh Chowk is seen as an effort to woo the Sikh community by both the BJP and the AAP ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls early next year.
Last year, Aurangzeb Road, which is not far from Race Course Road, was renamed APJ Abdul Kalam Road. A number of historians had criticised the decision.
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