In a major move, the Telangana government on Sunday announced the decision to change the abbreviation of the state from TS to TG.

The decision raised public questions, particularly about whether the old Vehicle license plate Telangana needs updating.

As per the new directive, the vehicle registration number will now be prefixed with TG. However, it’s important to note that this change only applies to new cars. Existing license plates for older vehicles will remain unchanged and continue to carry the old prefix.

The situation echoes what happened in 2014 when Telangana was formed as an independent state. At that time, new license plate numbers began to include the TS prefix, while older vehicles retained the previous AP prefix.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy justified the decision and said that the earlier choice of TS as the abbreviation of the state was done on a whim. He stressed that no other state in the country contains the word “state” in its code.

The recent decision to adopt TG is in line with the decision announced by the Chief Minister during the Assembly elections.

Several other important decisions were taken during the cabinet meeting. The iconic “Jaya Jaya He Telangana”, a poem by poet Ande Sri that became popular during the Telangana movement, will now be officially recognized as the state anthem.

Also, the Telangana Thalli (Telangana Mother) statue will be modified to reflect the aspirations of the people.

Speaking to The Indian Express after a cabinet meeting, Minister D Sridhar Babu revealed that the Center had issued a gazette notification in 2014 specifying the use of TG as number plates.

However, the TRS government then chose to align TS with the party’s initials. He stressed that at the height of the statehood agitation, people in Telangana replaced the letters AP on their license plates with TG as a form of protest.

The Indian Express added that political observers such as Professor K Nageshwar believe that the recent decision is an attempt by the Congress-led government to preserve the identity of Telangana and differentiate itself from the TRS and its leader KCR.

Nageshwar noted that the adoption of “Jaya Jaya He Telangana” as the state anthem fulfills a long-standing demand as it played an important role in the statehood movement.

The Assembly’s budget session, scheduled to begin on February 8, is likely to hold further discussions on these developments.