Display boards defaced on Bathinda-Zirakpur highway

Bathinda: Even as the state language department has issued instructions to all departments to write names of offices or road directions in Punjabi and keep it on the top, activists working for promotion of the language rue that the orders were not being properly implemented. The activists have blackened two display boards near the toll plaza at Lehra Bega village on the Bathinda-Zirakpur national highway, where instructions have been written only in Hindi and English.

Earlier in November, the activists had blackened a number of signboards on the Bathinda-Amritsar national highway, where Punjabi was written below Hindi and English, which had prompted police to register two cases on charges of causing damage to public property. The cases were cancelled later after a hue and cry was raised and the state government directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to use Punjabi on top of the boards in Punjab.

"We still feel that Punjabi is not being given importance in the state. The signboards on roads still are in Hindi and English at many places and names of many offices still are not written in Punjabi. Due to this reason we held a protest on Saturday and will continue with our agitation till Punjabi is not fully adopted in the state," said Ma Boli Satkar Committee activist Gurwinder Singh. The committee, along with another outfit Malwa Youth Federation, is working for promotion of Punjabi.

State director of languages department Gursharan Kaur said that, "We issued directions to the district language offices on December 1 to ask all departments to use Punjabi language on top while writing any names of offices or directions. Letters have also been written to the PWD (buildings and roads) to ensure signboards are written in Punjabi. We will keep a watch on those departments who don't implement the directions."