Tamil Nadu withdraws GO on name change of 1,018 towns, cities

Tamil Nadu government on Thursday withdrew a GO that altered the English names of 1,018 cities, towns and villages in line with their Tamil pronunciation, after it came under much attack for discrepancies in the spellings.

The move was criticised on two counts by people -- the need to change them and the non-uniformity in use of English alphabets while writing the names of different cities.

The move is part of an initiative taken up in 2018 to change anglicised names of cities and towns to their original names in Tamil and altering their English spelling.

As criticism mounted, Tamil Development Minister 'MaFoi' K Pandiarajan said the discrepancies will be looked into. However, on Thursday evening he took to Twitter to announce that the GO has been withdrawn and will be reissued.

"We are working on alignment of views by experts on Transliteration standards from Tamil to English. Hopefully, we should get this released in 2/3 days. The GO on the change of English names for Tamil names for places has been withdrawn. Will absorb all feedback & reissue shortly, " Pandiarajan wrote.

According to the GO, the names of Coimbatore, the industrial city known as Manchester of South India, was changed to Koyampuththoor, the port city of Tuticorin is Thooththukkudi and Vellore to Veeloor.