Council passes bill to make Marathi must in all schools
MUMBAI: Marathi is all set to become a compulsory language in schools across all boards in Maharashtra, as the legislative Council unanimously passed a bill on it on Wednesday.
This means Marathi will become mandatory in all Central board schools, including Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) too.
The bill makes it compulsory for all schools in Maharashtra teaching students in Hindi, English and other regional languages to have Marathi in its curriculum for students from Class 1 to 10. Anyone defying this law will have to pay a fine of ₹1 lakh.
Marathi will be introduced in Class 1 and 6 from the upcoming academic year (2020-21) in a
phased manner. Anyone who is currently studying in Class 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 will not be affected. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray made the speech in the Council, calling himself fortunate to table such a bill during his tenure. “It was imperative for my generation to preserve this language for the future generation. Marathi has a glorious history, tradition and culture and the time has come to embrace it,” said Thackeray. “My sons went to English-medium
schools, but speak excellent Marathi.”
The bill has been drafted along the lines of enactments made by southern states namely Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, which have made regional languages compulsory.
The bill stated that many schools tend to keep Marathi as an optional subject, while some minority schools do not teach Marathi at all. Hence this bill was tabled to correct the anomaly.
It will now be presented before the Assembly and after its passage in the lower house, will be sent to the Governor for his assent. Following this, a notification will be issued to make it a law.
Opposition leader in the legislative council Pravin Darekar said, “We should crack down on schools not following this order and there should be no compromise on adopting the language.”
MUMBAI: Deputy chairman of the legislative Council Neelam Gorhe on Wednesday directed the state to investigate why no action has been taken over two previous complaints by a Mirabhayander woman corporator alleging harassment by Narendra Mehta, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of legislative assembly (MLA), who recently quit the party. A video clip allegedly of the EX-MLA surfaced on Tuesday. Despite repeated attempts, Mehta was unavailable for a comment.
Shiv Sena MLA Manisha Kayande raised the question, seeking to know from home minister Anil Deshmukh if an FIR was lodged based on the woman’s allegations that she was being harassed by Mehta, and her and her son’s life were in danger. “I took an update on the issue. The woman corporator did not make a formal complaint with the police on Tuesday. She has assured me she will file a complaint on Wednesday. Following this, strict action will be taken against Mehta after investigation.”
Gorhe then intervened, saying, “I also spoke to the corporator on Wednesday morning. She told me she made two complaints about the harassment she faced at Mehta’s hands earlier, in July 2019, and in 2016, but no action was taken. I am directing the home department to find out why no action was taken. This must not be tolerated.” Mehta was an MLA from Mira-bhayander when those complaints surfaced. He lost the elections in 2019. Gorhe said, “I recall that he had spoken elaborately on his contribution and good work for Maharashtra and the government.”
THE INCIDENTS WERE REPORTED IN JULY 2019, AND 2016 WHEN MEHTA WAS THE MLA OF MIRA-BHAYANDER