The Centre on Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that there was no proposal to amend the Constitution to change the name of West Bengal to Bangla, PTI reported. Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said: “To change name of any state, constitutional amendment is required. There is no proposal to amend Constitution as of now.”

Rai also said that the name “Bangla” sounds similar to “Bangladesh. “Administrative guidelines for change in the name of villages/towns/railway stations, etc. are already in place whereby States/UTs are required to seek No Objection from the Ministry of Home Affairs,” Rai added in his written reply.

Last year on July 26, the West Bengal Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to change the name of the state to “Bangla” in Bengali, Hindi and Marathi. The Mamata Banerjee-led government forwarded the proposal to the Centre, but it is yet to be accepted.

On July 3 this year, Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to pass the amendment in the ongoing session of the Parliament to change the state’s name to Bangla.

The last time the name of a state was changed was in 2011, when Orissa became Odisha. Bombay was renamed Mumbai in 1995, Madras as Chennai in 1996 and Calcutta as Kolkata in 2001.