Extending the religious status of the river Saryu, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to rename the river Ghaghara from Gonda to Rewalganj border of adjoining state of Bihar as ‘Saryu’.

The UP cabinet which met here on Monday gave it approval to change the name of Ghaghara from village Chandapur Kitauli in Gonda to Rewalganj bordering Bihar as Saryu.

The government spokesman said that as rivers were national property, changing name of any river required the permission of Central government.

“The cabinet approval will be sent to the Centre for its assent,” the spokesman said.

In another decision, the government has decided to demolish 63 buildings of police department, including residential houses, barracks, hospital colony and dilapidated administrative offices. As these buildings are not required by other government departments and are not of use for private companies, it has been decided to demolish them.

The PWD has been made the nodal agency for the demolition work and has been asked to deposit Rs 10 crore after deducting value of scrap of these buildings.

The government has also asked the UPSIDC to provide land free of cost to Dahi police station under Sadar Kotwali in Unnao district so that it could be upgraded to a modern police thana.

The spokesman said that the district magistrate of Unnao, in his letter dated August 10, 2019, had said that the land around Dahi police station that belonged to UPSIDC was enough to upgrade the Dahi police station to a modern police station.

Accepting the suggestion, the government has decided that the UPSIDC would give the land free of cost to police to upgrade Dahi police station in Unnao.

In a similar decision, the cabinet has approved government decision to give land of Bareilly Nagar Nigam and jail free of cost to Transport department for construction of a bus stand near mini bypass at Central Prison, Bareilly.

The cabinet has also approved proposal for widening of Sanauli-Nautanwa-Gorakhpur-Deoria-Ballia road on State Highway 1 at Gorakhpur. The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 25,094 lakh.