A local Zila panchayat passed a resolution on Tuesday to change the name of Rudrapur’s Pandit Ram Sumer Shukla Government Medical College after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first Home minister. The college was founded in the year 2004 and named after Pandit Ram Sumer Shukla, a freedom fighter.
His son and a BJP lawmaker opposed this motion and said, “it is a privilege of a state government to decide the name of any institution. The zila panchayat cannot pass any proposal. Such an act is an insult to our freedom fighters.”
He further added that he respects the leader but this is a politically motivated move.
Suresh Gangwar, a nominated representative of the panchayati raj minister in the zila pachayat, said Pandit Ram Sumer Shukla’s statue has been installed at the main intersection of Rudrapur close to the medical college.
Shukla said that he is an ex-officio member of the panchayat but was not invited to the meeting where the proposal was placed. He said, “It is a political conspiracy, and I will move a privilege motion in the assembly against Apar Mukhya Adhikari of the zila panchayat for not inviting me. The name change is not a good practice.”
He immediately went to the panchayat after hearing about the proposal and got into a heated debate with Gangwar, husband of the panchayat chairperson Renu Gangwar.
