Chief minister Manohar Parrikar under fire for volte-face on medium of instruction

MARGAO: Claiming that Konkani primary medium schools had now been reduced to a minority due to the recent decision taken by chief minister Manohar Parrikar on the medium of instruction (MoI), Konkani Basha Mandal (KBM) president Prashant Naik said that all chances of invigorating the Konkani movement had been effectively killed.
"Basically, the chief minister has gone against the sentiments of the people as he was not only part of the movement but had participated in the dharna carried out by the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM)," said Naik, while speaking to TOI on Wednesday.
Naik criticized Parrikar for having gone back on his public stand thus betraying all those who were opposing grants to English primary education schools and added that Parrikar himself had promised that grants would only be given to primary schools that had their mother tongue as the MoI.
"Given that he has gone back on these promises, we have to wait and see how he implements his promises regarding subsidies and support to Konkani and Marathi schools," added Naik
Naik pointed out that he was part of the Nirakaar education society in Canacona and they had applied for permission to open two Konkani medium primary schools at different locations well in time (last November) but the government had not granted them permission. Naik listed out examples of students who had studied with the mother tongue as MoI and had excelled. tnn