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Amid the razing controversy that the Yogi Adityanath government is contemplating to change the name of Agra to Agravan, a clarification dismissing the claim came from the state government on Monday.
Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, Shalabh Mani Tripathi, said in Lucknow on Monday that there was no proposal before the Chief Minister to change the name of Agra to Agravan.
Earlier, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had taken a dig at the government, saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party government was in the habit of changing names of cities or telephone numbers of essential services.
“When will it do welfare work?,” Akhilesh asked in Mainpuri.
After Allahabad was renamed Prayagraj and Faizabad’s name was changed to Ayodhya, a couple of BJP leaders had demanded that Agra too be rechristened to its old name of Agravan.
They argued that since Agra was dominated by Agarwals, for whom  Maharaja Agrasen is a revered figure, the name of Agra be changed to Agravan.
Late Jagan Prasad Garg, who had won five times from Agra North Assembly constituency dominated by Agarwals, had in the past written to the Uttar Pradesh government, urging it that Agra be renamed as Agravan.
Sources said that the state government had asked the history department of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow to research facts about naming of Agra and sought historic proof about it earlier name of Agravan.
But as the process is time consuming and since Agra is an international tourist hot spot, changing its name will not be easy.
Meanwhile, the UP government is yet to decide on changing the name of Chandauli district to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya district even after receiving positive response from the people in general. Earlier, the Mughalsarai railway station was renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar junction.