Kolkata :

West Bengal on Wednesday renamed all the suites at the Raj Bhavan, official residence of the Governor, to shed its British legacy. The palatial house, built in 1803 by the British when Calcutta was India’s capital till 1911, and known as Government House had suites named after the British.

Now, the Prince of Wales Suite has been renamed Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore Kakhsha and Anderson Suite Swami Vivekananda Kakhsha (Kakhsha means rooms). A State government official said, “All new names were personally selected by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She felt that when foreign dignitaries visit the state and stay in the Raj Bhavan and find suites with British names even after independence, it sends a wrong signal.”

The former Prince of Wales Suite on the first floor in the northeastern wing is reserved for the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and visiting heads of states.

The Dufferin Suite, named after Lady Dufferin, was renamed Kanchenjungha Kaksha, after the Himalayan peak, while Wellesley Suite, named after the former British Governor General in India, was renamed Sagar Kaksha, after the holy Gangasagar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Government House was designed by Brit architect Captain Charles Wyatt as a copy of the British manor house of Lord Curzon’s family at Keddleston Hall, Derbyshire, UK.

Mamata also plans to rename Dhakuria Bridge in the city after Hindu preacher Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, as Chaitanya Setu, and the Jerut Bridge after the wife of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, as Ma Saradamoni Setu.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by Arup Chanda / January 28th, 2016