5 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Panel on cards to erase ‘colony' from names of habitations, govt records
'To guide this process, officials may provide a framework outlining certain conditions for suggestion of names. One such condition could be that the new name should be neutral and non-identifiable in terms of the residents' social background,' a person involved in the discussions shared.
In addition to this, villages with names containing an explicit identifier of any of the SCs, especially in an undignified manner, are also expected to be renamed.
An alternative idea being floated is for officials to suggest a broad list of names, from which the residents can choose one for their street or locality.
The removal of the term 'colony' also involves the extensive process of updating addresses in all official documents of residents, including ration cards, Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, bank passbooks, etc. When contacted by TNIE, writer Imaiyam, vice-chairperson of Tamil Nadu State Commission for SC and ST, said, 'The new names could be inspired by flowers, ancient Tamil poets or even renowned scientists like Newton and Edison, and philosophers such as Socrates and Plato.'
VCK MLA Sinthanai Selvan said, 'In no way can the term 'colony' be justified. But the new names should not be common across the state. They should vary from village to village. Perhaps we can simply name the streets using their directions, under the name of the specific village unit.'
