Call to change weird names of Tirinkot squares, streets

TIRINKOT (Pajhwok): Residents of central Uruzgan province have expressed concern over embarrassing names of squares and streets of Tirinkot..

Some roundabouts have been given bizarre names like opium, naswar (snuff), potato, gas, chicken, mechanics, butchers and carpenter squares.

Resident Mohammad Idrees, 53, questioned the strange names and said the ‘opium square’ had shops run by drug smugglers and dealers. Such appellations evoke a ludicrous image of the Uruzgan people, he argued.

Mir Jan, a resident of Poti Kalacha area o the city, said apart from squares and streets, some villages also had inappropriate names. One feels ashamed referring to these monikers.

Elderly resident of Tarinkot province said that there had been only one square (Munar) and a building named (Kotai) in the past but currently every square and streets had its own name.

NajibLatif, writer and journalist, said such names of the squares and streets indicated that no attention had been paid to the city and had no in charge.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News that such non-standard named create problems in making reports. “If an incident took place in squares we should mention its name (opium square or Naswar square).”

He added Uruzgan had famous and cultural personalities in the past and the squares should be designated with their names.

Javed Khpalwak, a civil society activist, also took issue with the names, saying they had asked the municipality, information and culture department, as well as other organs, to choose culturally acceptable names.

Mayor Eng. Niamatullah Bakhtiar, meanwhile, said a plan had been devised to rename certain squares and streets. The Informant and Culture Department would implement the plan as soon as possible.

Noor Mohammad Abdali, culture and information director, said he had requested his minister fo a procedure to change the odd names.

The squares and streets would be renamed after the procedure was approved. Governor Mohammad Shafiq Asadullah Syed vowed to rename these places.

sa/mud