CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin urged the traders and businessmen in the state to take steps to ensure that name boards of shops, businesses, trade, and commercial establishments in the state are written in Tamil.

Speaking at a traders welfare meeting held at the Secretariat on Tuesday, the CM said no one should point fingers and say that Tamil is not found anywhere in the streets of Tamil Nadu, so businesses should sport nameboards in Tamil.

He said that the DMK government has alloted Rs 3.29 crores for traders welfare and there should be no middlemen between the government and traders.

"Trade licenses now need to be renewed only once in three years and the financial aid for those members of trade unions who die will be increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakhs," he said.

Noting that the number of traders who have registered in the traders welfare union has gone up to 88,209, Stalin said that businessmen and traders should work with compassion instead of commercialising all aspects of business.