Finally, Amit Shah, while using the social media platform ‘X’ declared on Friday that the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Port Blair, has been renamed as ‘Sri Vijaya Puram,’ owing to the vision of PM Narendra Modi to wipe out the colonial influences in the country. He stated, “PM Sh @narendramodi Ji’s vision to decolonise the nation led us today to rename Port Blair as ‘Sri Vijaya Puram. ’ While the old name was colonial in its geographical variability, the new name signifies freedom as this place played its part during our freedom movement. ”
Amit Shah also focused on the fact that before independence, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands played an important role in India’s freedom struggle. He said the Islands, which was once a naval base of the Chola Empire in the past, now hold the position of an island of strategic and development importance in the nation.
In addition, the Union territory holds tremendous historical importance, as it was in this place that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose hoisted the first time Indian national flag; it has a Cellular Jail where freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar were imprisoned.
The renaming is taking place at a certain moment when the Nicobar Islands have received much media attention over the construction of a ₹72,000 crore package involving infrastructure work that some people believe may lead to displacement of the Shompen people. The Shompens, who are hunters and gatherers isolated and almost on the nomadic stage, possess a population of about 244 and are prominently inhabited in the Nicobar district of India. However, local administration officials have come up with an assurance that the proposed development project is for those regions that do not house the Shompens. According to them, some of the Shompen tribe relocated deeper into the forest after the tsunami that occurred in 2004, out of areas that the developers wanted to exploit.
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