Social transformation: Villages in Anantpur district renamed to remove SC tag

Amaravati, Dec 28: In an important move towards social transformation, villages and colonies with an exclusive population of Scheduled Castes in Anantpur district are being renamed after freedom fighters and social activists.

Andhra Pradesh became the first state in the country to remove caste-based names of residential areas and last week, the government of Maharashtra decided to follow suit. The district collector, Gandham Chandrudu who was moved by the discrimination that the SC communities continue to face in the villages directed the officials not to use the words, Dalits, Harijans or Girijan in official communications and instead only use Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe to define persons belonging to these communities.

Gandham Chandrudu also warned of disciplinary action against those who violated the instructions.

Further Chandrudu made the district panchayat officers to make all village panchayats pass a resolution seeking a change of their names form the existing Harijanawada or Girijanawada. Following the resolution, a committee of senior officials was constituted to name the SC colonies after renowned freedom fighters and social activists.

Chandrudu ensured that all the 390 SC colonies were renamed in official records. 203 colonies were named after Dr. B R Ambedkar, while the others were named after Chandrasekhar, Azad, Netaji, Gandhi, Neher, Mother Teresa, Vallabhai Patel and Gautam Buddha.

Thirty nine colonies under the Rural Development Trust were re-named either RDT Colony or after the RDT's founders Mancho and Vincent Ferror. Chandrudu said that after verifying the Centre's instructions, an executive order was issued to ban the usage of Harijan/Girijan name in all records including the names of villages and colonies. He also said that titles such as Mala Palle-Madiga Palle were removed.