Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government is facing criticism over the renaming of a park in Kankarbagh in Patna. The Opposition BJP is alleging that the government wants to rename the park named after former prime minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee to ‘Coconut Park’. The park was scheduled to be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Monday, but as the controversy broke out, the inauguration was postponed.
“The park developed by the Bihar government in Kankarbagh in the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and has his idol is being renamed as Coconut Park,” Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai alleged as per news agency ANI.
“Today, Tejashwi Yadav is going to inaugurate it. It is offensive to rename the park which was named after Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is almost equivalent to a crime. The nation and public will question Tejashwi Yadav,” Nityananad Rai said.
Eyeing a possible storm, the Bihar government pushed the inauguration ceremony but was quick to hit back at BJP with state environment minister Tej Pratap Yadav claiming that the Opposition is spreading rumors. “It is named Coconut Park in official papers…Rumour is being spread that the park has been renamed…BJP people must have put up the board (of Atal Park)..” said Tej Pratap Yadav.
Confirming if park notified as ‘Atal Park’
“For the time being, we have postponed the inauguration of the said park that was scheduled today. We have also asked the Patna Municipal Corporation to confirm if/when was the park notified as ‘Atal Park’,” said Bandana Preyashi, Secretary of the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bihar.
As per the news platform India Today, the park was earlier named as Coconut Park, but after the death of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2018, the then NDA government in the state decided to name it after the former Prime Minister, now JD(U)-RJD government wants the park to call by its original name.
“On one hand, Nitish Kumar garlands the memorial of Vajpayee ji and, on the other hand, Tej Pratap Yadav has changed the name of the park. This is a two-tone government. BJP opposes this and the party demands that the name of this park not be changed,” said BJP spokesperson Arvind Kumar Singh said.
(With inputs from ANI)
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Updated: 21 Aug 2023, 05:04 PM IST
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