VIRUDHUNAGAR

The Departments of Labour and Employment and Tamil Development have begun a drive to ensure that shops, hotels and commercial establishments in the State have their name boards compulsorily displayed in Tamil.

Though the name boards can also be in English and other languages, the drive is to ensure that the name in Tamil gets priority in order of writing and size of fonts.

Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture and Archaeology K. Pandiarajan told The Hindu that the joint drive by the two departments would be carried out in all districts. “For many years now, the name boards in many shops and commercial establishments have missed Tamil. This increased after migration of businessmen and professionals from north India, particularly from the Northeast, into the State,” he said.

Though the Government Order making Tamil as a compulsory language in name boards was issued in 1982, lack of implementation enabled the shops and commercial establishments to ignore the rule.

“The G.O. not only makes Tamil compulsory, but also ensures that the size of Tamil letters is bigger than that of other language letters,” Mr. Pandiarajan said.

Officials from both the departments would carry out inspections and impose penalty on violators.

The Minister said similarly, the names of villages, towns and municipalities would be changed from their anglicised versions into Tamil. “All boards will be changed. For instance Tuticorin and Triplicane would become Thoothukudi and Thiruvallikeni respectively,” he added. This change would put an end to the colonial legacy sticking to naming of places in the State, he added.

“We don’t say the name boards should not be in English or other languages. But, we are only insisting that they should also be in Tamil,” he added.

The drive is expected to get intensified in a fortnight after publicity in all the districts.

A statement from Virudhunagar district administration on Tuesday said the size of the letters in Tamil and English should be in 5:3 ratio. If one more language was added in the board, then the size of letters in Tamil, English and the other language should be in 5:3:2 ratio, it added.