Rani Kamlapati was the widow Gond ruler of Nizam Shah, chief of Ginnorgarh. The Gond community comprises the largest tribal group of India with more than 1.2 crore population.

Bhopal:

The Madhya Pradesh government on Friday urged the Central government to rename the Habibganj Railway Station’s name after the 18th-century Gond queen of the region, Rani Kamlapati.

In its letter to the Union Home Ministry, the state government has argued that its request is in accordance with the Indian government’s decision to celebrate November 15 as ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas’ in remembrance of revered tribal leader and freedom fighter Birsa Munda.

Rani Kamlapati was the widow Gond ruler of Nizam Shah, chief of Ginnorgarh. The Gond community comprises the largest tribal group of India with more than 1.2 crore population.

Linguistically, the Gonds belong to the Gondi-Manda subgroup of the South Central branch of the Dravidian language family.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the station which has been redeveloped at a cost of Rs 100 crore on November 15, the day government launches the ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas’, a week-long celebration of the pride of the Scheduled Tribes in India.

The letter states that the renaming of the station will honour Rani Kamlapati’s legacy and bravery.

The decision of the state government to rename the station as Rani Kamlapati station comes a day after BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur demanded that the station be renamed after former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The name of Allahabad railway station has been changed to Prayagraj and Mughalsarai railway junction ras been renamed Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay junction.