E-Paper
DMK slams govt over changing road names
Chennai Blaming the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) for changing names of three important arterial roads in Tamil Nadu, the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Thursday sought the chief secretary’s intervention for restoring the old names
Chennai
Blaming the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) for changing names of three important arterial roads in Tamil Nadu, the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Thursday sought the chief secretary’s intervention for restoring the old names. The roads pointed out by the DMK were previously named after Dravidian icons of the state like EV Ramasamy, CN Annadurai and K Kamaraj, but now bear English names.
On Thursday, a three-member delegation of the DMK led by organising secretary and MP RS Bharathi submitted a representation to chief secretary Rajeev Ranjan, urging him to intervene to roll back names of the roads.
“It is common knowledge that some of the major roads and highways in Chennai are named after the greatest leaders of Tamil Nadu. This was a policy decision taken by the then government,” stated the DMK delegation’s letter to the chief secretary, which was also shared with the press. “The move to change the names of the roads will insult Tamil personalities belonging to various political parties and create a tense and unrest situation in the state and may lead to further struggles and unrest,” the letter added.
In the past, both DMK and AIADMK have indulged in changing the names of roads after Tamil scholars and personalities to evoke a linguistic pride. Chennai’s Poonamallee High Road was renamed in 1979 by AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran (MGR) into EVR Periyar High Road after EV Ramasamy, the father of the Dravidian movement. Similarly, Mount Road was renamed as Anna Salai and Beach Road as Kamarajar Salai. The DMK in its letter said that names of these roads have now been changed to Grand Western Trunk Road, Grand Southern Trunk Road and Grand Northern Trunk Road, respectively. The DMK has sought for the old names to be restored.
“This action of changing the names of the roads, and the sheer disrespect to Tamil icons cutting across all parties has brought uneasiness and unrest in the state and may even lead to agitations,” Bharathi said in his letter. “It is quite apparent that the name change is done to please the ideologies of the AIADMK’s masters from the north, whose dislike of the Dravidian movement and its icon Thanthai Periyar is well known. Their aim is to ‘saffronise’ everything,” the letter added.
The AIADMK, however, said that no names have been changed. “It seems the highways department used names from old records and during a routine job of erecting name boards, they have done this,” AIADMK spokesperson C Vaigaichelvan said, adding, “We don’t have the power to do anything now. After we form the government again, we will take necessary steps.”
He dismissed DMK’s charges that this was done to appease their ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party. “BJP doesn’t tell us to change any name and we won’t do such things. We are also for Periyar. What do we have against these road names?”
Meanwhile, former Union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday night tweeted that a smart government would immediately let leaders know that names of the highways have not been changed. “The controversy should end tonight,” he said.
