New Delhi, Sep 5: The Centre has decided to rename Rajpath and Centre Vista lawns stretching from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate here as 'Kartavya Path', official sources said on Monday.
On September 8 evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the entire stretch, which has been renovated under his government's ambitious Central Vista redevelopment project.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has convened a special meeting on September 7 and the proposal will be placed before it. "The entire road and area from the Netaji statue at India Gate to the Rashtrapati Bhavan will be known as Kartavyapath," sources said.
Rajpath was known as Kingsway during British Rule.
In his Independence Day speech this year, the prime minister stressed the abolition of symbols that reflect the colonial mindset.
The prime minister has stressed on the importance of everyone fulfilling their duties in the 25 years leading to 2047 when India will be celebrating 100 years of Independence. Both these factors can be seen behind the name 'Kartavya Path', sources said, adding "this is also a message to the ruling class that the era of rulers and subjects is over".
Going by the ethos of the Modi government to make nomenclatures more people-centric, the name of the road on which the prime minister's residence is located was changed from Race Course Road to Lok Kalyan Marg in 2015, they added.
In 2015, Aurangzeb Road was renamed A P J Abdul Kalam Road. In 2017, Dalhousie Road was renamed Dara Shikoh Road. Also, Teen Murti Teen Murti Chowk was changed to Teen Murti Haifa Chowk in 2018. There have been several proposals to rename Akbar Road, but nothing has been done yet.
The redevelopment project of the Central Vista the nation's power corridor also envisages a new triangular Parliament building, a common central secretariat, a new residence of the prime minister, a prime minister's office, and a new vice-president's enclave.
The revamped Central Vista Avenue along the Rajpath will have state-wise food stalls, red granite walkways with greenery all around, vending zones, parking lots and round-the-clock security. But people would miss only one thing -- food will not be allowed on the lawns from India Gate to Man Singh Road.
The stretch will open for the public after 20 months. On the day of the inauguration, visitors will not be allowed on the stretch from the India Gate to Man Singh Road, but they can use the remaining part. From September 9, the entire stretch will be thrown open to the public.
The Central Public Works Department (CPWD), an executing agency of the project, has set up five vending zones where 40 vendors each will be allowed and according to the plan, they will not be allowed to sell their items to visitors in the garden area.
A senior official said there would be two blocks near the India Gate and each block has eight shops, adding that some states have shown their interest to set up their food stalls.
"Ice cream carts will only be allowed in the vending zones. Although we have not taken any decision, we will ensure that these ice cream trolleys are not allowed along roads," the official said.
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).