MADURAI: Hindi lettering on a State Highways Department direction board in Tuticorin district triggered a political row on Friday, prompting the Tamil Nadu govt to remove it and suspend two engineers.The board, installed at Valliammalpuram on the Sathankulam-Nazareth section of SH-93, displayed Tirunelveli, Alwarthirunagari, Thoothukudi and Tiruchendur in Tamil, Hindi and English. The stretch was improved by the department’s National Highways wing under Central Road and Infrastructure Fund.DMK president M K Stalin accused the TVK govt of doing what Tamil Nadu had opposed, and asked whether it was another move that would be reversed after resistance. “The two-language policy is Tamil Nadu’s lifeline. Do not play with it,” he said.Highways minister Aadhav Arjuna said a departmental inquiry found the trilingual board resulted from the “carelessness and negligence” of officials, and maintained that the govt’s Tamil-English policy remained unchanged. Assistant divisional engineer N Boominathan and assistant engineer T Muthulakshmi were suspended, and the board was replaced.The controversy widened later on Friday after DMK cadres circulated photographs on social media showing Tamil-Hindi-English direction boards on newly constructed highway stretches on Madurai’s outskirts, including a roughly 30-km link along the Madurai-Dindigul corridor. Highway engineers defended the inclusion, saying Hindi helped the growing number of Hindi-speaking tourists and interstate drivers read directions.The rulebook is less categorical. A 2004 Union road ministry circular requires advance information signs on National Highways to carry the local language, Hindi and English, while asking states to adopt the same practice on State Highways for road users and tourists.Under the Indian Road Congress code (IRC:67-2022), Tamil Nadu is not required to use Hindi on direction boards along State Highways. The code allows states to use the regional language and English, while Hindi can be added where considered necessary. In effect, Tamil Nadu can continue with Tamil-English signboards without violating the national road-sign standard.
