MillenniumPost
Bengal

'Discrimination against regional languages in JEE'

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her party will hit the streets on the issue of "discrimination" against regional languages in JEE (Main). TMC will organise rallies in all blocks across the state on the issue.

"I have asked our supporters to hold rallies at the block level on November 11 against this move. I have also asked the youth wing of the Trinamool Congress to organise a rally either at Rani Rashmoni Road or in front of the Gandhi statue, wherever they get the place. I will appeal to the other states too who have been "deprived" to protest against this "discrimination," Banerjee said after chairing the extended working committee meeting of the party at Trinamool Bhavan where party MPs and MLAs were present.

Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the Centre for taking the decision to conduct JEE in Gujarati while ignoring all the other regional languages. The JEE so long was conducted in English and Hindi.

The Chief Minister maintained that state Education minister Partha Chatterjee had written a letter some months back urging to hold the examination in Bengali but it did not attract any response. "Both Maharashtra and Gujarat had opted for regional languages, then why Marathi language was left out," she questioned.

She also clarified that she has nothing against Gujarati and said: "If the Central government is making a decision, they should have asked the state government. How do we know? They should have informed the state government."

The TMC supremo further asserted that India is a vast country and there are many languages, caste, creed and religion. "Not only Bengali, but there is also the discriminatory attitude towards all the languages except one or two," she added referring to a row that was triggered when Union Home minister Amit Shah pitched for Hindi as a common language.

The National Testing Centre that conducts the examination came out with a press statement that only Gujarat agreed to admit their candidates in the state engineering colleges through JEE and requested that the paper be made available in the Gujarati language.

"In 2014, Maharashtra also opted for admitting the engineering candidates in the state engineering colleges through JEE and requested to provide the question paper in Marathi and Urdu. Later in 2016, both these states withdrew the admission to the state engineering colleges through JEE (Main). Therefore, the translation in Marathi and Urdu language was stopped," the statement added.

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