Rly circular on regional languages revoked after uproar

Southern Railway on Friday hurriedly withdrew an order instructing its staff only to use either English or Hindi, not regional languages, for communication between Divisional Control Office and Station Masters following outrage from general public and political parties like DMK.

The circular issued by the Chennai Division of Southern Railway on June 12 said use of regional languages should be avoided “to prevent either side not understanding what is being said.” The move came a month after a near collision of trains on the tracks near Madurai due to language confusion between those manning the train and the staff at the control room.

“It is the responsibility of the Control Office to ensure that every instruction passed by it to station masters is clearly and fully comprehended. Similarly, it is the responsibility of the Station Masters to ensure that requesting permissions or advising action taken by them is clear and fully comprehended by the Control Office,” the circular had said.

As the circular led to a political storm, the DMK deputed its senior MP Dayanidhi Maran to the Southern Railway office here to demand the withdrawal of the controversial order. DMK MP Kanimozhi said the circular proves that several people from North India have been made to work in Southern Railway.

“At a time when the Centre is attempting at imposing Hindi on Tamil Nadu, the Southern Railway has issued an instruction that officials should not communicate in Tamil, but either in English or in Hindi. The Centre should not just withdraw the circular, but should refrain from such activities in the future,” Kanimozhi said.

Following the uproar, the Southern Railway issued a new order by removing the language part. “While it goes without saying that it is the responsibility of the Control to ensure that every instruction passed by it to the Station Master is clear and fully comprehended, it is also essential that the SMs (Station Masters) do the same while requesting permissions or advising action that they are taking,” the new order read.

The order came just a week after the Centre clarified that there were no attempts to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states following a draft education policy that recommended three language policy.

Several staff working with the Southern Railway hail from North India and they find it quite difficult to pick up Tamil and those from Tamil Nadu speak either in their mother tongue or English, making smooth communication impossible at times.

In the order issued on Wednesday, the Southern Railway said the objective of the exercise is to improve communication between control office and station masters.

Condemning the circular, PMK founder S Ramadoss said though the reason is given is to prevent accidents, it cannot be denied that the objective behind such a move is only to impose Hindi. Maintaining that the reason behind such miscommunication is due to high number of north Indians in Southern Railway, Ramadoss demanded that they be sent back to their native states.

“In place of those from North Indian states, Tamils should be appointed,” Ramadoss, whose PMK is an ally of the BJP, said.