Tamil Nadu shuns Devanagari rupee symbol for for Tamil alphabet 'Roo'

CHENNAI: The State Planning Commission and Finance Ministry contributed to the spurt in the excitement over the state budget for 2025-26, the last full-budget of the incumbent DMK regime led by Chief Minister MK Stalin, to be presented in the State Assembly on Friday, by replacing the ‘ரூ.’ (Rupee) symbol with ‘Roo’ (Tamil alphabet used widely in vernacular medium to denote Rupee) in the budget promo and documents.

Interestingly, the ‘ரூ.’ symbol was designed by D Udaya Kumar, the son of former DMK MLA N Dharmalingam.

With Stalin even releasing a teaser for the Budget, and the state government making elaborate arrangements to screen the budget live in 100 places, there is an element of excitement over the budget announcements.

Meanwhile, Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman lambasted the DMK government for unceremoniously removing the official Rupee symbol ‘ரூ.’ from the state's Budget documents for the fiscal year 2025-26.

"By erasing the symbol, the DMK is not only rejecting a national symbol but also callously disregarding the creative contribution of a Tamil youth, " she argued in a statement.

Also Read: TN govt replaces Rupee symbol in budget logo with Tamil letter, draws BJP''s ire

While the Economic Survey of Tamil Nadu used the ‘ரூ.’ symbol commonly used in the country, the Budget promo stuck to ‘Roo’. Executive vice-chairman of the State Planning Commission J Jayaranjan contributed to the excitement by reasoning that the decision was made to avoid the ‘Devanagari’ script. Asked about almost all documents having ‘ரூ.’ symbol and it being replaced this time, Jayaranjan said, “Only because Devanagari is not needed.” On BJP state president K Annamalai’s charge that the 'Rs' symbol in use was designed by a Tamil, the SPC executive VC said, “Many Tamils have done many things. Not all can be executed.”