DMK, allies decry Hindi sticker in new bus

Condemnation has poured in for the state transport department reportedly using Hindi signages instead of Tamil in its newly procured buses. Pictures of a sticker pasted inside a TNSTC bus alerting commuters about the emergency exit procedures has drawn widespread criticism from the Opposition.

DMK MP Kanimozhi, who was among the first to rake up the issue has posted photographs of the stickers pasted inside the newly procured TNSTC buses bought with taxpayers’ money in the state on her official Twitter handle. “There is no space for Tamil in the buses bought with the tax money of people of Tamil Nadu. While the Centre attempts to impose Hindi on one hand, I strongly condemn the ruling AIADMK for attempting to prove that it is second to none by doing the same,” Kanimozhi tweeted with an accompanying hashtag #stopHindiImposition#

Joining the issue with her, MDMK general secretary Vaiko said, “It is strongly condemnable that the Edappadi regime was attempting to impose Hindi in buses even as the Centre was thrusting the language in the pretext of national education policy. Where did Tamil Nadu government derive courage from to ignore Tamil in buses run in the state.”

However, transport department officials denied Kanimozhi’s allegations and said that they have already removed the Hindi words in the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation buses. “In one of the TNSTC buses body designed in the neighbouring state, it has signage of emergency exit in Hindi along with English. As soon as it was brought to the notice of the management, the sticker was removed,” an official statement said.

It noted that the bus body designs were done as per the guidelines of the association state road transport undertakings and the automotive research association of India. “As per the guidelines, the emergency exits were kept on both sides of the bus. For the benefit of the passengers, all the buses in Tamil Nadu STC has marking of emergency exits both in Tamil and English, it said.