BBSM seethes as MOI panel report proving to be elusive

PANAJI : The Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch has demanded immediate resignation by the members of the Bhaskar Naik committee constituted in July 2016 by the then chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, as it has now been proved that the committee was eyewash, and set up “to fool the voters during the 2017 assembly elections in Goa”.

The BBSM has also convened a meeting of its central executive committee and important divisional workers on December 9 to finalise the related future course of action.

The 17-member committee had been initially granted 120 days to submit its report. However, two years down the line, the panel is yet to draft its report, which was supposed to pacify both, the pro-Konkani and pro-Marathi supporters led by the BBSM and the pro-English medium group led by the Forum for Rights of Children to Education (FORCE).

“This committee headed by a government officer, with another government officer as its member secretary, was brushed aside by both BBSM as well as the FORCE, as both these organisations were certain that the committee would carry out related survey as per the direction of the government,” a press note released by BBSM convenor Subhash Velingkar stated, adding that the BBSM condemns the decision of the committee not to release its report.

The BBSM press note further stated that the committee had been  given extensions after extensions on November 29, 2016; March 31, 2017; July 25, 2017; and October 3, 2017, after which it has expressed its inability to come out with the report.

“This exposes the real objective of the government behind constituting this committee,” it added.

Maintaining that the constitution of the committee is the gross misuse of government money, the BBSM stated that barring a few exceptions of pro-government individuals, the committee has noted educationists as its members, who may not have taken the decision to refrain from releasing committee’s report.

“Therefore, if they are not party to the mysterious decision of the committee to suppress the report then they should tender their resignation,” it noted.