Watch: DMK workers booked for defacing Hindi on railway boards in Pollachi, Palayamkottai

MADURAI: Several DMK workers were booked on Sunday after they went defacing Hindi words on signboards at railway stations in Pollachi and Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli.

While five DMK men were booked by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for defacing Hindi words at Pollachi railway station, six of the partymen were booked for blackening the name board at Palayamkottai station, where they also raised slogans against imposition of the Hindi language.

Amid the ongoing row over the imposition of Hindi, a group of DMK workers led by ‘Thendral’ K Selvaraj smeared grease oil over the Hindi letters on the name board at Pollachi junction around 7.25 am.

After the video of the incident went viral on social media, the RPF booked Selvaraj and his supporters under the Railway Act of 147 (trespass), 145 B (nuisance) and 166 (defacing public notices).

Police said the accused blackened three name boards to express their protest against any attempt to impose the Hindi language. When the railway police rushed to the spot and prevented them from defacing the name boards, the party workers broke into an argument and shouted slogans condemning the centre for imposing Hindi and against the three-language policy.

Within an hour of the incident, the name boards were restored by officials with Hindi letters.

“The name boards were rectified immediately,” said the Palghat Division of the Southern Railway in a social media post.

The RPF at Tirunelveli has registered a case against six persons, including Rajavarman, state deputy secretary of DMK Engineering Wing, under Sections 147, 166 and 145 (b) of Railway Act, sources said.

The state and central government leaders have been at loggerheads ever since Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan insisted that funds for varius schemes will be withheld as long as the state government does not accept the National Education Policy (NEP).