Wed Apr 16 09:24:21 UTC 2025: ## Tamil Nadu Re-emphasizes Tamil as Official Language in Government
**Chennai, April 16, 2025** – The Tamil Nadu government has issued a strong advisory to all senior officials, reiterating the mandatory use of Tamil as the official language in all government communications and operations. The advisory, issued by V. Rajaraman, Secretary of the Tamil Development and Information Department on April 14th, was sent to Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, departmental heads, District Collectors, and other key officials.
The advisory underscores existing provisions of the Official Languages Act, emphasizing that all government orders and circulars must be in Tamil. Furthermore, all inter-office communications, both incoming and outgoing, should be conducted in Tamil, except for specifically exempted cases. Responses to public correspondence received in Tamil must also be in Tamil. Government employees are instructed to use only Tamil signatures on all official documents.
For documents permitted to be issued in English, the advisory mandates that the Secretariat departments submit them to the Translation Division of the Tamil Development and Information Department for translation into Tamil. Translated documents must then be resubmitted for review before dissemination. This renewed emphasis aims to solidify Tamil’s position as the official language within the state government.
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