Chandigarh: Punjab State Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairperson Tejinder Kaur in a letter to the Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan has asked to rename the caste-based villages, towns and other places, besides refraining from using the word Harijan and Girijan in official functioning by ensuring the strict compliance of the instructions issued by the state government in the year 2017.
Commission Chairperson Tejinder Kaur said that it has been brought to the notice of the Commission by various organizations 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 the 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 the word 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 personally in the matter, said that directions should be issued for refraining from use of the words Harijan and Girijan in official functioning and the departments concerned such as Revenue, Rural Development and Panchayat, Local Government, School Education and Registrar Cooperative Societies should be issued necessary guidelines to ensure renaming of villages/towns, schools, mohallas, Basti, streets, Dharamshalas and societies.