After Chennai, Tiruvallur district administration directs shops to display Tamil name boards

Tiruvallur Collector M Prathap on Sunday, April 6, issued an advisory directing shop owners in the district to ensure that their commercial establishments have Tamil name boards by May 1. The rule mandating Tamil name boards was enforced through a government order from 1977. The advisory also said that a fine would be imposed if found to be violating this rule. 

“Tamil should be the first and primary language displayed prominently on the name board. Let English be the second language and if necessary, a third language may be displayed,” an official release from the district collector said.

“If shops and commercial establishments violated this, a fine would be imposed as per the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, 1947 and the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Rules, 1948,” the release added.

As per the 1977 government order, name boards of establishments should carry their names in Tamil on top, with an English version below. Names in other languages can be given below the English version, the Government Order said. It mandates the font sizes to be in the ratio of 5:3:2.

It may be noted that Chennai Mayor R Priya on March 13, said that the shop owners in Chennai should ensure that their establishments have Tamil name boards and added that the shop owners would be penalised for failing to comply with the rule. The Tamil Nadu government also unveiled the front cover of the state’s budget document, in which the official Devanagari-based rupee symbol was replaced by the Tamil rupee symbol.