On Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Government announced that the names of 1018 places including cities, towns and localities will have new spellings that are phonetically in sync with their original Tamil name. An order to this effect was issued on April 1 but was made public only on Wednesday. The changes have been notified in the gazette as come into effect from April 1.

For instance, Dharmapuri will now be spelt Tharumapuri, Coimbatore will be spelt as Koyambuththoor, Tuticorin as Thooththukkudi, Vellore as Veeloor, Tiruvarur as Thiruvaroor,  and there are many more like this. In Chennai, places such as Mylapore will now be written in English as Mayilaappoor and Egmore will be known as Ezhumboor. However, some names remain unchanged. Here's the full list of the new spellings. 

Though this move to bring in the authentic Thamizh flavour to places names were welcomed, social media has been flooded with criticisms and trolls as the announcement comes at a time when the state is reeling under pandemic crisis.