Naming and renaming streets not on govt's agenda: Naidu

Government today spurned the demands for renaming Akbar Road as Maharana Pratap Road, saying "naming and renaming of streets was not on the agenda", a day after Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh wrote to the Urban Development Minister asking for the change.
"Naming and renaming of street is not the subject matter of the Urban Development Ministry. It is not on the government's agenda. Government's focus is only development," Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.
Singh has pitched for renaming Akbar Road in Lutyens Zone after the doughty Mewar ruler Maharana Pratap and written to Naidu in this regard. Singh's demand comes amid reports that Haryana government too had sought renaming of Akbar road after the Mewar ruler.

Playing down Singh's comments, BJP said everyone has a right to express his opinion but the government's priority was solving the country's problems and its development.
"Our priority is 'gramoday se Bharat uday', as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Government works according to its priorities but everybody has a right to their opinion," BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
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Meanwhile, BJP state council meet today adopted a
resolution blaming cultural icons of Kerala for their "silence" over the "violence unleashed by the ruling CPI(M)" in the state.
The resolution, presented by state party chief Kummanam Rajasekharan, alleged that Kerala has become a killing field under the CPI(M) rule.

"Even women are being burnt alive in the name of political rivalry," the resolution said, referring to the death of a BJP woman supporter recently.
The woman had succumbed to burn injuries after some vehicles parked at her house were set ablaze by suspected CPI(M) activists at Kanjikkode in Palakkad district.
The "silence" of cultural icons and human rights activists was "dangerous" when incidents of harassment of women and children were being reported, it said.
It accused the cultural leaders of pledging for humanism and ethics merely for winning awards and recognition.
The resolution was adopted a day after cultural activists organised a get together in Thiruvananthapuram to express solidarity with litterateur M T Vasudevan Nair and filmmaker Kamal who had come under attack of Sangh parivar and BJP for their stand against certain policies of the Narendra Modi government.