Name board in Hindi at Tirupur railway station triggers uproar

COIMBATORE: A name board of an information centre in Hindi at Tirupur railway station triggered uproar among political parties across Tamil Nadu.

After the board with an display of the word ‘sahyog’ in English, Hindi and the same written in Tamil received widespread condemnation from public on social media, the railways on Tuesday morning replaced it with the actual ‘Information Centre’ in English, and its translated word in Tamil and Hindi at the entrance area of the railway station.

Passengers visiting the railway station were confused as to what ‘sahyog’, also written in Tamil, had actually meant and only Hindi language speakers understood its meaning. The social media was agog with criticism that it was a brazen attempt by the BJP-led central government to impose Hindi in the State.

Condemning the replacement of Tamil with Hindi at the railway station, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader S Ramadoss tweeted that information boards should primarily be in the local language of Tamil in places like railway stations and central government offices for the convenience of the public.

“In addition to Tamil, the boards can also be displayed in English and Hindi. It seems the railways have found a new way to impose Hindi. The railways should stop playing with the emotions of Tamils. The railways should immediately remove such Hindi name boards kept anywhere else also,” he said.

Tirupur South DMK MLA AK Selvaraj, in a statement, slammed the railways for giving priority for Hindi over Tamil. “Such incidents shouldn’t happen in the future,” he said.

The railway staff in Tirupur junction said that they put up a Hindi name board as a large number of North Indian workers are coming to Tirupur. “It has now been replaced with the original ‘thagaval maiyam’ in Tamil and information centre in English,” said an official.