Chennai: The Southern Railways, on Friday, has scrapped the order which read that official communication between the Divisional Control Office and the Station Masters should be either in Hindi or English.
According to the railways, the order, issued on Wednesday, was to prevent “either side not understanding what is being said”.
It was reported that the order was sent out after a collision between two trains was narrowly averted following a misunderstanding among officials.
In a letter dated June 12, Chief Transportation Planning Manager (CTPM) R Siva wrote, “The communication between the Divisional Control Office and the Station Masters should be either in English or in Hindi and the use of regional language should be avoided to prevent either side not understanding what is being said.”
The communication was addressed to Section Controllers, Station Staff, Traffic Inspectors and Station Masters of the Chennai division.
Opposition parties, however, objected to the order. DMK, PMK and DK parties called it imposition of Hindi on the state where the subject of linguistic identity is very sensitive.
After receiving flaks, Southern Railways hastily scrapped the order, issuing a new one on Friday that asked officials to communicate clearly.
