Chennai Regional Meteorological Centre also irritated for issuing weather announcements in Hindi

Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai. File | Picture source: M. Moorthy

The Chennai Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) has come under fire for daily weather announcements outside of Tamil and English on its website, which the communiqué introduced at least six months ago.

RMC is the weather service headquarters for the southern states and two union territories.

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The centre also begins to provide 24-hour rainfall forecasts for Tamil Nadu, Puducher and Karakar regions in three languages: English, Tamil and Hindi.

This has sparked controversy among the leaders of Tamil Nadu, which claims it is another attempt to impose Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking countries.

In a social media post on X, Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan criticized the coalition government for not providing financial assistance to the state’s disaster relief program, while “imposed Hindi” through weather forecasts. He said the move shows that the welfare of the people of Tamil Nadu has never been a priority for the BJP that the Centre ruled.

The bank is the source of a firm stance based on the state’s imposition of Hindi and its commitment to bilingual policy.

“Efforts to Promote Hindi”

Meanwhile, RMC officials said the move was only “part of an effort to promote Hindi as directed by the Parliament’s official language committee”, under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

B. Amudha, the person in charge (extra fee), Chennai RMC said the update in Hindi was included on the October 2024 website.

According to the notes, this is part of an initiative to promote Hindi languages ​​as well as English and Tamil. An official, a designated Hindi translator, was appointed for purpose in July 2023.