Hindi poster at Tiruppur railway station sparks controversy; officials remove it

TIRUPPUR: Southern Railway officials on Tuesday removed a poster featuring a transliterated Hindi word from the information centre at the Tiruppur railway station after political parties, and passengers accused the union government of trying to impose Hindi.

Sources said a small poster was pasted on the glass window of the information centre recently. It featured the word Sahyog (help) in English, Hindi and Tamil. When passengers asked staff at the centre what it meant, they said it is the new name for the information centre. Taken aback, some passengers clicked photos of the poster and shared them on social media. The photos went viral and railways drew sharp criticism.

PMK leaders took to Twitter to condemn the centre. PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss said it was the union government’s blatant attempt to impose Hindi. Tiruppur South (MLA) K Selvaraj wrote to Southern Railway officials demanding that the poster to be removed.

An official from Southern Railway said, “Many migrant workers use the station. The poster was put up to help them, and a circular was issued in this regard. What must have upset activists and politicians is the poster carried the transliteration of Sahyog in Tamil, instead of the translation. This created confusion.”