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TN to make Tamil flight announcements compulsory

After name-boards in shops and business establishments and archanas in temples, the Tamil Nadu government has now sought to introduce Tamil on flights landing at the airports in the state.

The state government would take up the matter with the Union civil aviation ministry to make it compulsory for airhostesses in domestic flights to make announcements in Tamil when they land in Madras, Madurai, Thiruchirapalli and Coimbatore, state Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture Dr M Tamizhkudimagan told the media in Madras today.

The state government also favoured Tamil announcements in international flights touching the state. If the airhostess were not familiar with Tamil and wherever it was not possible, a recorded audio message could be played, he said.

Dr Tamizhkudimagan said the introduction of archanas in Tamil in the temples was going on well and there were enough priests to perform the archanas.

He said booklets containing the archanas in Tamil had already been sent to all the temples and the priests were free to include the names of presiding deities of the respective temples in the archanas.

In the next phase, the government would bring out separate compilations of archanas for Saivite, Vaishnavite and Shakthi temples all over the state. Moreover, the government was also planning to bring out audio cassettes of archanas for the benefit of those who wanted to perform archanas in Tamil in their houses, he said.

Asked about the authorities of a few temples in Kanyakumari and Tiruchendur insisting that devotees take off their shirts while entering the temples, he said the government would talk to those people concerned and discuss the issue in detail, before taking any decision in this regard.

UNI

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