Coimbatore: A controversy has erupted in Karur and Coimbatore after medical covers that were distributed at the government college and hospital had the instructions printed on them in English, Tamil, and Hindi. The three-language medical cover has triggered a controversy because opposition parties are now asking why the TVK government allowed Hindi, since the state's rule is to use only two languages (Tamil and English).
According to the reports, the hospital authorities have asked the staff not to issue the medical covers that were printed at a cooperative press in Erode in 2025.
Former DMK Minister TRB Rajaa wrote on “X” against the TMK government.
The X post said, “It seems like the three-language policy is being implemented in Tamil Nadu hospitals too.” He also pointed out Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, saying that they use the same kind of packaging to instruct the patients about medicine dosage.
In an interview with TNIE, Dr. M Bharathi Mohan, dean of Government Medical College Hospital, Karur, said that the covers are usually produced by the inmates at Madurai jail and delivered to the hospital. However, due to the shortage of covers from Madurai jail, the authorities had to order covers from a cooperative press in Erode in December 2025.
The dean told TNIE, “We usually get plain brown covers without any letters, and the staff at the pharmacy print only Tamil letters using a rubber stamp. When the order was placed with the Erode press, we were not given any instructions to print anything. However, they had printed the words on their own on large-sized covers. The order was placed in December 2025.”
He said that the covers were printed last year and no one noticed the Hindi print. He added that once the controversy started on social media, the medical staff was asked to not use the covers.
According to the reports, Coimbatore Medical College changed the printed covers with plain covers after the controversy on social media. The authorities said that they were asked to manually stamp the cover and then write down the dosage as per the prescription.
As per the report by TNIE, the pharmacists working at the hospital at CMCH said that plain covers are not helpful for the patients because the printed covers help migrants to understand the dosage better.
(Rh/ARC)
