Residents, activists raise questions over renaming of streets

Activists raised questions over the State government’s decision to remove caste from street names. They say it will take time to change addresses on various cards, including Aadhaar, voter ID, family cards, State health insurance cards and community certificates.

Suresh, a fisherman from Irular Colony at Sadayankuppam in Manali, said the area was initially named after the temple deity Govinda Perumal, later from another deity, Gangai Amman. Following the floods in 2015, several Irular families settled here, after which the area came to be known as Irular Colony. “We don’t know if this name will change, and if so, we’re not sure what changes would need to be made to official documents. Will our children’s admission to school or university be affected? Will property ownership be affected? Will it affect voting? Many questions like this remain unanswered,” he said.

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

Consumer activist T. Sadagopan said name changes would only bring problems in urban environments where street names are used as addresses.

“We use official documents as proof of address and proof of identity. If updates to income records are not done properly, it can cause problems in property settlement. Even small mistakes can create problems in the future. Such changes should only be made when absolutely necessary.”

MP D. Ravikumar said the government’s decision was not a political move, but a necessary move to prevent people from being insulted due to their caste names. “Former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran issued the first GO on removal of caste names from street names in 1978. This was implemented at that time, but then slowly people forgot about it and caste names started resurfacing,” he said.

In 2018, the Madras High Court directed the government to implement this order. “When the DMK government came to power in 2021, our party had once again represented the removal of caste names from street names as they appear in Aadhar cards and passports and people’s caste identity is spread across the world,” he said.