The state government announced on Saturday that the names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad talukas, districts, subdivisions, and divisions will now be changed to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv, respectively. The official gazettes with the name changes were released on September 15 by the district administration just a few hours before the start of the special cabinet meeting for Marathwada.
At a small ceremony later, Shinde, along with Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, unveiled plaques bearing the respective names of the districts.
According to the notification issued by the Revenue Department on Friday night, the suggestions and objections sought a few months ago about the renaming of the districts were considered by the government and the decision to change the names at the sub-division, village, taluka and district levels has been taken.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated that the state government has fulfilled the long-pending demand to rename these two places in Marathwada. He mentioned, "Late Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray had announced the renaming of Aurangabad long ago. We have now fulfilled the demand, taking into account all the technicalities and legalities."