Rename caste-based villages, towns of Punjab: Panel

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 13

The Punjab State Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked the state to rename caste-based villages, towns and other places, besides refraining from using words such as Harijan and Girijan in official functioning by ensuring strict compliance of the instructions issued by the state government in 2017.

Commission chairperson Tejinder Kaur, in a communication to Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, said it had been brought to the notice of the commission by various organisations belonging to the Scheduled Castes that most of the villages, towns, schools, mohallas, basti, streets, dharamshalas and societies in the state have caste-based names, while in a letter dated July 28, 2017 to all heads of the state, issued by the Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities Department (Reservation Cell) Punjab in the light of guidelines dated August 16, 1990 of the Government of India, it was directed that using words Harijan and Girijan in official functioning and on the certificates of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes should be refrained.

The chairperson, while asking the Chief Secretary to intervene in the matter, said directions should be issued for refraining from use of the words Harijan and Girijan in official functioning and the departments concerned such as the Revenue, Rural Development and Panchayat, Local Government, School Education and Registrar Cooperative Societies should be issued necessary guidelines to ensure renaming of the villages/towns, etc.