‘Bengali not being used enough as official language’

kolkata: west bengal has been trying its best to promote bangla as its official language for the past one and a half years, but sadly, even today the top bureaucrats of the state prefer to correspond amongst themselves in english, feels state minister for parliamentary affairs probodh chandra sinha. sinha is the head of the committee for propagation of bangla, formed by the state government.at a seminar organised by the information department, he spoke about the problems faced by the government to introduce bengali as the official language of the state. “the problem is with our mindset and our heritage of slavery. first we served the sultanate and the moghul courts. the official language was persian then. later, we served the british empire when the official language was english. we should grow out of this mindset and start using bengali in full swing as the official language,�he said. it is sad that the english language has completely invaded the state, so much so that one can find nursery/ montessori schools even in villages, he said. “parents should stop feeling insecure about their wards studying in bengali medium schools,� sinha said adding that often even ministers forget their responsibility to propagate bangla and correspond in english. forty one stenographers and typists of the state government have been given special training in in bengali. more will be given such training. secretary of bangla akademy sanat chattopadhyay said, “there is a shortage of bengali type machines. moreover, books on bengali terminology have still not reached all state government employees. despite such shortcomings we should try our best to make the use of bangla compulsory for official use.� tussle between cable operators deprives viewers: thousands of television viewers are being deprived from watching prime time programmes due to a tussle between bccn and jhilik cable operators. for the past 72 hours, the cable service remained disrupted near barrackpore. it is reported that cable operators were purposefully cutting off each other’s cable wires to stop competition in this field. “rpg is doing monopoly business in barrackpore subdivision. they are pressurising the broadcaster to stop service to jhilik cables,� said ananta sadhukhan, director jhilik cables. “due to the shady business of bccn, the consumers were being deprived. why shouldn’t there be competition in pay channels, too? we are airing 60 channels at rs 80 per point while they are charging rs 125-150 per point for the same 60 channels. “let the consumer decide to which operators they will subscribe to. the amount for each point may be raised upto rs 200 if jhilik cable would not have been there,� he said. meanwhile, officer-in-charge of titagarh ps, paresh roy said, “till now, we have arrested 14 persons in this connection and booked them under section 107 of the ipc. the step has been taken to retain law and order in the area. however, bccn and jhilik cable both are responsible for the act.�