CHENNAI: In a month or so, Triplicane will become Thiruvallikeni, Trichy Tiruchirappalli, Tuticorin Thoothukudi, and Poonamalle a real tongue-twister , Poovirundhavalli. The government is planning to rename towns, localities and 220 streets across Tamil Nadu by December.A recent order issued by the state Tamil development department said a high-level committee had been formed to finalise suggestions from Tamil scholars from all the 32 districts. Ten-member teams headed by the district collectors would shortlist these suggestions and submit them to the high-level committee headed by Ma Foi K Pandiarajan, Minister for Tamil official language and Tamil culture.K Vijayaraghavan, director of the department, said, “Names of places must be pronounced the Tamil way and shouldn't be tweaked to suit English usage. For instance, Thiruvallikeni is referred to as Triplicane.”Therefore names of places must be retained in Tamil and should be transliterated when used in English, he added. P Ponniah, Kancheepuram Collector, has gone a step further by seeking suggestions from the public to effectively implement the order.Commenting on it, K Ramakrishnan, a Tamil scholar from Coimbatore, said the government should also rename places with Sanskrit names and that of the dominant caste residing there.“For example, Srirangam (Sanskrit) in Tamil is Thiruvarangam. Despite an order barring usage of caste names for places, names like Kavundampalayam and Pallapalayam do exist till date. The government should change this before passing the final notification on transliteration,” he added. Welcoming the move, Professor Oppila Mathivanan, head of the Tamil literature department, University of Madras, said this would help people remember Tamil pronunciation.