Marathi must in government offices, or else face action: Maharashtra directive

MUMBAI: Maharashtra government Monday issued a govt resolution mandating use of Marathi in all govt and semi-govt offices. According to the GR, employees "in all govt, semi-govt offices, local self-govt bodies, state-run corporations and aided offices" must use Marathi language while speaking to visitors, except visitors from out of India and from other states.

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The GR, issued by state planning dept, is part of implementation of the recommendations in state's Marathi language policy. It has been made mandatory "to put up boards in front of (govt) offices regarding the use of Marathi language and conversation in Marathi." The GR states, "This will be strictly enforced. Complaints can be made to the concerned head of the office or head of the department regarding govt officers/employees who do not communicate in Marathi. The head of department will take disciplinary action if any fault is found after verification."

The GR further stated, "Original proposals, all correspondence, comments, orders, messages in all govt offices shall be in Marathi and all presentations and websites at office level shall be in Marathi. According to the trilingual formula of Centre, it will be mandatory to have notice boards, name boards of officers, application forms in Marathi in all offices of the Central govt in the state as well as in all banks. Marathi names of govt and semi-govt institutions as well as corporations, boards, govt-approved enterprises, companies shall be used in the functioning of the institutions."

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The GR said use of Marathi language will be mandatory "in advertisements given to the media by the enterprises under govt-sanctioned activities."

Marathi was given status of a classical language by Centre in Oct last year, along with Pali, Prakrit, Assamese & Bengali.