NEW DELHI: Gurgaon, the corporate hub of Haryana on the outskirts of Delhi, will now be known as ‘Gurugram’, reports said on Tuesday.

This decision has been taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party government which claimed that people of the area have been making a demand in this regard.

The decision to change the name of Gurgaon to ‘Gurugram’ has been taken on the basis of the representations received at several fora that it would be appropriate to rename Gurgaon as Gurugram, an official spokesman said.

“Haryana is a historic land of the Bhagwat Gita and Gurgaon had been a centre of learning,” the spokesman said.

“It had been known as Gurgaon since the times of Guru Dronacharya. Gurgaon was a great centre of education where the princes used to be provided education. Therefore, since long the people of the area had been demanding that Gurgaon be renamed as Gurugram,” he reasoned. The government also decided to rename Mewat district as Nuh. Mewat, in fact is a geographical and cultural unit and not a town. It is spread beyond Haryana in the adjoining states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the spokesman said.

The headquarters of Mewat district is at Nuh town. The people of area and the elected representatives had been demanding that the name of Mewat be changed as Nuh, he further said.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2016