The Rajasthan government on Thursday officially notified the change of names of three villages. Miyon ka Bara village in Barmer district will now be called Mahesh Nagar, Narpada in Jalore district has been renamed Narpura, and Jhunjhunu’s Ismailpur has been changed to Pichanwa Khurd, ANI reported.

Earlier this year, the Vasundhara Raje government in the state had sought the Centre’s permission to rename the villages. It was approved by the Union Home Ministry on August 6, according to The Indian Express.

Residents complained about not receiving marriage proposals as the earlier names gave people the idea that Muslims lived in the three villages, according to The Hindu. “The residents were facing difficulty in finding marriage proposals for their children because of the village’s name,” said Tahir Samma, Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Siwana tehsil in Barmer. “They approached the government authorities with the request to change the name.”

Samma and former sarpanch Hanumant Singh claimed that before Independence, Miyon Ka Bara was known as Mahesh Ro Bado. The village has around 2,000 people, most of whom are Hindus and only four Muslim families, Singh said.

Hameersingh Bhayal, BJP MLA from Siwana, claimed that the demand to rename Miyon ka Bara was more than a decade old. Since a Shiva deity was present in the village, it was renamed Mahesh Nagar, according to The Indian Express. “Earlier too, this place was referred to as Mahesh Nagar but over a period of time, due to change in dialect and people migrating to the village, everyone started referring to it as Miyon ka Bara,” he said.

In March, the ministry told the Parliament that it received 27 proposals asking for a change of names of villages, towns and railway stations from states between January 2017 and February 2018, according to The Hindu.

On August 5, the name of Mughalsarai Junction railway station was officially changed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction after the RSS ideologue. The move to rename the station was an attempt by the Adityanath government to revive the legacy of Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who died at the station in 1968. Jan Sangh was a precursor to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.