WB Govt celebrates Int’l Mother Language Day

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee along with some of her Cabinet colleagues attended a programme organised at Bhasa Shahid Smarak at Deshapriya Park on Sunday. She paid homage to the martyrs of the Bhasa Andolon through various programmes. On February 19 the Chief Minister had inaugurated the Bhasa Shahid Smarak at the Ekushe Udyan Park opposite to the MP Birla Planetarium in the city. 

Cabinet ministers including Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee also joined the programme.

It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister had taken initiative to set up the Bhasa Shahid Smarak at Deshapriya Park. Banerjee had paid her tribute to the martys of the 1952 Language movement by changing her Twitter profile name to Bengali font.

After coming to the power the Banerjee led government had taken up a number of initiatives to mark the day through various celebrations. 

Like other years, the State Food Supply minister celebrated the day with various dignitaries at the Indo Bangladesh border in Petrapol.

To mark the day around 34 professors from different colleges and universities in Bangladesh came to Siliguri and visited various colleges there. 

On February 17 the special team from Bangladesh came to the state after visiting some other institutions in Bhutan. One of the main purpose of the team to share and exchange some of the basic traits of the education system of the two countries.

Several non-governmental organisations too observed the mother language day through various cultural programmes. 

To mark the day, artists, poets and people from both the countries took part in a function on the zero line on the border to observe the International Mother Language Day.

International Mother Language Day is observed on February 21 every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. 

The day refers to the day in 1952 when the students demonstrating for the recognition of their mother language, Bengali as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot dead by the police in Dhaka. 

On November 1999 UNESCO proclaimed February 21 to be International Mother Language Day.