Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Sunday expressed strong protest against what he called the virtual imposition of Hindi by the Centre on non-Hindi speaking states.
Addressing reporters here, Mr. Narayanasamy said that India was a multi-lingual, multi-cultural and secular nation and no attempt should be made by the Centre to impose a particular language on States, which are linguistically different.
He said that Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and other states have been resisting relentlessly the attempt of the Union Government to impose Hindi. But ever since the present government headed by Narendra Modi came to power clear attempts have been made to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states.
The concept of one nation, one language and one religion propounded by the RSS is being promoted by the Centre but the Union government should bear in mind that India is a secular country and all religions are equal without any differences. Hence, the attempt on part of the Centre is a clear violation of policy propounded by late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Mr. Narayanasamy said that the Centre had attempted to adopt the new eduction policy giving importance only to Hindi and English language. But there were widespread protests both inside and outside the Parliament to the new policy.
The Centre had also attempted to do away with the regional languages in its schedule of conducting recruitment exams in the postal department. But this nefarious attempt was thwarted by widespread protests, he said. The Chief Minister appealed to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to withdraw his views on his Twitter handle.
On display of banners, he said that the death of a young woman techie in Chennai should be taken as an eye-opener. The Chief Minister said that he had already issued orders to the concerned municipalities to remove all unauthorised hoardings, banners and publicity materials.
The officials concerned should keep close vigil, and if there was any lapse on the part of the officials, they would be dismissed from service. The government itself would remove the banners and collect the charges from those who had erected them.
“The government had designated certain places for displaying banners and hoardings. We would revisit this decision in the larger interest of public safety. Puducherry is a beautiful place and its aesthetics should not be marred by hoardings, which are an eyesore,” he said.
Banner-free territory
Mr. Narayanasamy said that all political parties and the people should cooperate in making Puducherry free from banners. Strict legal action would be taken against those who violate the standing orders of the government, he said.
Referring to the current deadlock in the implementation of the free rice scheme, he said that it was indeed a matter of concern that the Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi kept turning down the decisions of the government and also of the Assembly that the cardholders should be supplied only rice and not the cash equivalent.
Ms. Bedi’s stand that cash payment alone would be permitted is a clear violation of the conventions relating to governance.
“I would also go in for a legal battle to bring to the fore how Ms. Bedi is standing in the way of implementation of the government decision. She has been impeding implementation of various welfare schemes and her refusal to implement the Assembly decision is a clear example of her unbridled style of functioning. Till the Centre’s decision is available the government would remit the cash equivalent in the bank accounts of cardholders,” he added.