High Court bars Amethi's name change

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Friday struck down the notification of the then Mayawati government, changing the name of Amethi district to Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar. A bench of Justices Sabibul Husnain and D.K. Arora passed this decision on a petition filed by Manoj Kumar Rastogi, who had contended that no name of any district could be changed till Dec 31, 2011 as the census was underway. [caption id=“attachment_464078” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rahul Gandhi.[/caption] The then chief minister Mayawati, through a notification July 1, 2010 had carved out the district by taking Salon and Tiloi areas from Rae Bareli (Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency), and adding Gauriganj, Musafirkhana and Amethi tehsils (revenue sub-divisions). Mayawati’s successor, Akhilesh Yadav had, soon after the swearing in of his Samajwadi Party government, had reversed the name change. Amethi was earlier represented in the Lok Sabha by Sonia Gandhi and is now being represented by her son and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. IANS