Chennai, Oct 7:
Tamil Nadu Health Minister K G Arunraj has accused the DMK of indulging in “cheap politics” over the use of medicine covers carrying Hindi, Tamil and English at government medical college hospitals in Karur and Coimbatore.
In a statement on Wednesday, Arunraj said the medicine covers being used at the two hospitals were not introduced by the present TVK government. He claimed that at Karur, the hospital normally procured covers from the Central Prison and used Tamil-only stamps indicating the time of consumption. However, due to a shortage of such covers in December 2025, an emergency order was placed with the Erode District Printing Industrial Cooperative Society for four lakh covers. According to the minister, the order was issued on December 31, 2025, during the previous DMK regime, and the covers entered circulation in January 2026.
Arunraj further claimed that in Coimbatore, similar covers had been officially approved and brought into use around three years ago, during the DMK regime, through the Chintamani Cooperative Society. He questioned the DMK’s criticism of the present government when, according to him, the design containing Hindi had originated during its own tenure.
The controversy erupted after DMK leader T R B Rajaa shared photographs of the medicine covers on social media and questioned whether the three-language policy was being implemented in Tamil Nadu government hospitals. The covers contained instructions in Tamil, English and Hindi on dosage and administration intervals.
Arunraj said the present administration had only procured the covers based on requirements from existing stocks and had not made any changes to their design or language. He accused the DMK of attempting to create confusion among the public by linking the issue to the three-language policy.
The minister said the government acted immediately after the issue came to its notice and stopped the use of the disputed covers at both Karur and Coimbatore. At Karur, he said, the earlier system of obtaining covers from the Central Prison and printing details only in Tamil would be restored. In Coimbatore, steps had been taken to prepare and use new covers carrying only Tamil and English.
Arunraj reiterated that the TVK government would continue to follow Tamil Nadu’s two-language policy of Tamil and English and would not compromise on the issue