Kerala to be Keralam soon? Union Cabinet likely to approve name change proposal

NEW DELHI: Centre is likely to approve the proposal to change the name of Kerala to Keralam in a cabinet meet scheduled on Tuesday.Union ministers have been asked to reach early as there may a photo session before cabinet meet. Interestingly, this will the first cabinet meeting at the Seva Teerth -- the new PMO and Cabinet Secretariat. This comes after Kerala state assembly passed a resolution urging the center to bring in a Constitutional amendment to change the State's name to 'Keralam' from 'Kerala.' Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan moved the resolution calling for measures under Article 3 of the Constitution to rename the state to 'Keralam' in the First Schedule. He stated that the name 'Keralam' is used in Malayalam and emphasised that the demand for a unified Kerala for Malayalam-speaking communities has been prominent since the national freedom struggle."The name of our state is written as Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution. This assembly requests the Centre to take immediate steps to amend it as 'Keralam' under Article 3 of the Constitution and have it renamed as 'Keralam' in all the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution," Vijayan said.A resolution seeking to officially change the state's name was unanimously passed on August 2023. The resolution asked the Centre to change the name of the state to 'Keralam' in the First Schedule of the Constitution. Similarly the resolution wanted the Centre to change the name as ‘Keralam’ in all languages under the Eighth Schedule.However, upon detailed verification, it was found that such an amendment required only in the First Schedule of the Constitution.