Odisha

Orissa will hereafter be called 'Odisha' and the Oriya language will be known as 'Odia' with Parliament giving approval to amendment of the Constitution and also passing the related bill. The Rajya Sabha passed the Orissa (the Alteration of Name) Bill and adopted the Constitution (113th) Amendment Bill after a brief debate with members from all parties hailing the move as "historic" for people of the state. Supported by all parties, including the Biju Janta Dal, the Constitution Amendment Bill was adopted by all 169 members present and voting. Such a bill requires support of at least two-third of members present and voting. Besides, the majority of the strength of the House should be present for voting. The Upper House has strength of 245 members. Lok Sabha has already adopted these measures after the Centre received the resolution passed by the state Assembly. The bills were piloted by home minister P Chidambaram. However, the electronic voting system witnessed glitches during the division so much that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's vote was also cast wrongly. Participating in the debate, members said the name change was the process of decolonisation as Britishers had changed the Indian names of cities and states. There have been many cities and states that have been renamed after independence. These include Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Pune (Poona), Kochi (Cochin) and Bengaluru ( Bangalore).