Speaker asks gov to provide Bangla second official language status

Ranchi, Dec 18 (UNI) Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Alamgir Alam today directed the state government to finalise the issue of providing second official language status to Bangla within the next 45 days.

Mr Alam intervened into the matter after the members of BJP-led Opposition along with the members of treasury bench, including the Congress and the RJD, sat on the floor before Speaker's chair in the House demanding status for the Bangla language.

The matter was raised by Annapurna Devi of RJD during call attention motion.

Replying to the query, Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi said the second language status would be given to Bangla, but the government was waiting for the 2001 census report.

Mr Marandi said the state government had already written thrice to the directorate for providing census report.

''We will provide the second language status to Bangla as soon as we receive the census report of 2001.'' Dissatisfied with government's reply, BJP's C P Singh sat on dharna and shouted slogans in support of the demand. Ms Aparna Sengupta of Forward Bloc and Annapurna Devi also joined him.

Mr Radhakrishna Kishore of JD-U said the government could also follow the 1991 census as it was being used for other welfare schemes by the govenment.

The Speaker then directed the government to take a decision in this regard within the next 45 days.

Meanwhile, a few other MLAs demanding second language status for regional languages sat before the Speaker's chair and shouted slogans.

UNI