Opposing the renaming of Brough Road as Meenatchi Sundaranar Road, members of Christian community submitted a petition to Corporation Commissioner M. Elangovan here.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had, while participating at a function in the city on February 28, announced that the road would be renamed. On Thursday, signboards carrying the new name were installed on the arterial road and were unveiled by Collector C. Kathiravan in the presence of MLAs. Also, Theppakulam Street was renamed as Kanitha Medai Ramanujar Street.
Led by Aldrin Rajesh Kumar, secretary, CSI Brough Memorial Church, the members submitted petition to the Commissioner stating that Rev. Anthony Watson Brough (1861-1936), when he was the nominated member of the Erode Municipality, laid the road from Panneerselvam Park to District Headquarters Hospital and the road was renamed after him. “Renaming the road after 80 years will affect the members of the community”, they said.
Likewise, J. Barnabas, secretary, Salem Historical Society, said that renaming the road was an attempt to bury the contribution of the medical missionary who had started schools in Erode district. “Educationalist Meenatchi Sundaranar and Brough were great stalwarts in the history of Erode and the government’s act of renaming the road will hurt the sentiments of Christian community,” he added.
