TN withdraws order changing names

The Tamil Nadu government has withdrawn the controversial order changing the English spellings of 1,018 places in the state after the decision and the timing of it amid the coronavirus pandemic had garnered mixed responses. The state had changed the spellings to reflect the Tamil pronunciation and spelling of these places. "We are working on alignment of views by experts on Transliteration standards from Tamil to English. Hopefully, we should get this released in 2/3 days. The GO on the change of English names for Tamil names for places has been withdrawn. Will absorb all feedback & reissue shortly," Tamil Language Development Minister K Pandiarajan tweeted. While many of these English names were anglicised versions of the original and were coined by the British, some had the influence of Sanksrit on them.