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Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010
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Shops begin displaying Tamil on nameboards

Staff Reporter

Mayor hopes that all traders will meet the May 31 deadline

— Photo: R. Ravindran

New move: Mayor M. Subramanian at an awareness campaign on Tamil nameboards in Mylapore on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Many shops and commercial establishments in and around Mylapore on Tuesday formally commenced the process of giving prominence to Tamil on their nameboards.

Speaking at an awareness campaign on Tuesday, Mayor M. Subramanian said that the traders' associations in various parts of the city have also expressed their willingness over the initiative of the Chennai Corporation.

The civic body has fixed May 31 as the deadline for shops and commercial establishments to give prominence to Tamil letters on their signboards.

Failure to comply with this directive would result in the civic body removing the signboards from June 1 under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishment Rules, 1948. The enthusiasm of the traders, however, shows that there would not be any necessity to take action under the rules in June, the Mayor said.

According to the Corporation, the shops and commercial establishments should put up signboards in which the names and details in Tamil occupy 50 per cent of the total space.

They may also display names in other languages on the signboards, but it should be in accordance with Section 15(1) (2) and (3) of the rules giving importance to words written in Tamil.

Even though the rule has been in force for many years, around 50 per cent of the around 90,000 shops and establishments in Chennai are not displaying names in Tamil, an official said.

Many members of traders' associations in the city participated in the awareness campaign.

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