Residents, activists raise questions over renaming of streets

Activists have raised questions over the State government’s decision to remove the mention of caste from street names. They say changing addresses on various cards, including Aadhaar, voter ID, family cards, Government health insurance cards, and community certificates would be time consuming.

Suresh, a fisherman from Irular Colony in Sadayankuppam in Manali, said the area was originally named after Govinda Perumal, the temple deity, and later after another deity, Gangai Amman. Following the 2015 floods, several Irular families settled there, after which the locality came to be known as Irular Colony. “We don’t know if this name will be changed and if so, we are unsure what changes need to be made in official documents. Will our children’s school or college admissions be affected? Will property ownership be affected? Will it impact voting? Many such questions remain unanswered,” he said.

S. Vishanth of the Ennore Solidarity Group said  said awareness and assistance camps, similar to Ungaludan Stalin, should be organised by the State government to proactively address such concerns. 

Consumer activist T. Sadagopan said that in urban settings where street names were used as addresses, name changes would only bring problems.

“We are using official documents as address proof and ID proofs. If the updates in revenue records are not carried out properly, it might lead to issues in property settlement. Even small mistakes could cause problems in the future. Such changes should be made only where absolutely necessary,” he said.

Member of Parliament D. Ravikumar said the government decision was not a political move,  but a necessary move to prevent people from being insulted because of caste names. “It was former Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran who first issued a G.O. to drop caste names from street names in 1978. It was implemented at that time, but then slowly people forgot about it and the caste names started reappearing,” he said.

In 2018, the Madras High Court directed the government to implement that order. “When the DMK government came to power in 2021, our party had again represented that caste names be removed from street names as they are being included in Aadhar cards and passports and the caste identity of people is being spread across the globe,” he said.