The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod to the new name of Faizabad division as Ayodhya division (mandal) and Allahabad division as Prayagraj division (mandal). Besides, Faizabad district will now be officially known as Ayodhya district following its approval by the state cabinet.

The cabinet meeting was presided over by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Briefing newspersons after the cabinet meeting, Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said while Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh district would constitute the Prayagraj division, the Ayodhya division would consist of Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Barabanki, Sultanpur and Amethi districts. Khanna said these districts were part of the same divisions earlier.

The official name change of Faizabad district and division to Ayodhya comes in the wake of Yogi’s announcement during the ‘Deepotsav’ programme in Ayodhya on November 6. With the demand for construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya gaining momentum, Yogi Adiyanath had announced that Faizabad district would henceforth be known as Ayodhya district.

The CM had also announced that a new medical college to be built in Ayodhya would be named after Lord Rama’s father, Raja Dashratha, and the airport being built in Ayodhya will be named after Lord Rama.

It was on October 15 that Allahabad’s name was changed to Prayagraj. The chief minister’s decision followed the demand of seers that Prayagraj should be the name of Allahabad.

After Tuesday’s cabinet nod on renaming Faizabad as Ayodhya, the Yogi Adiyanath government is seriously considering a ban on the sale of liquor and meat in Ayodhya district. An indication to this effect was given by state government spokesman and Energy Minister Srikant Sharma recently.

A ban on the sale of liquor and meat in the whole of Ayodhya district has been a long-pending demand of the seers associated with the Ram temple movement. They had recently renewed their demand with the UP chief minister. While sale of liquor and meat was already banned in Ayodhya town, they have now demanded that the ban be extended to entire Faizabad district now that it will be called Ayodhya district.

The sale of liquor and meat is also banned in Vrindavan, Barsana, Nandgaon and Govardhan in Mathura.

In all, 10 proposals were approved by the UP cabinet on Tuesday. Among the other proposals is the decision to honour the teachers of unaided schools. There are 19,275 unaided schools in the state and one teacher each from the 18 divisions will be selected for the award that carries a cash prize of Rs 25,000. The teachers’ award would be given on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary on December 25.