Rajya Sabha Passed the Bill Changing the Name of Orissa to Odisha

The Rajya Sabha, the upper House in Indian Parliament, on 24 March 2011 passed the Orissa (the Alteration of Name) Bill, 2010 changing the name of Orissa to Odisha. The Lok Sabha had already passed the bill on 9 November 2010 during the winter session.

The bill was introduced by the Union Home minister P Chidambaram in Rajya Sabha on the basis of resolution passed by the Orissa assembly on 28 August 2008 to change the name of Orissa to Odisha. The bill was adopted by all 169 members present and voting, cutting across the party lines. Earlier, the government of Orissa passed the resolution to change the name of the state on 28 August 2008 and forwarded it to the Union government of India. As by the provision to Article 3 of the Constitution, the President referred the bill to the state legislature of Orissa for expressing its views.

It should be noted that any amendment of the Constitution of India is not needed to change the name of any state in India because it is already mentioned in the Article 3 of the constitution of India which deals with formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states.