No Marathi, no increment! Uddhav Thackeray’s communication diktat to all government departments in Maharashtra

This year in February, the state govt passed a law making Marathi language a mandatory in schools.

The Udhhav Thackreay-led Maharashtra government has directed all its departments to strictly use Marathi language in all official correspondence. It has also warned the officials that if they don’t follow the directions, they will lose their increment. According to reports, the state government has asked all the department heads to take action against the officials found deliberately not using Marathi language in official communication.

Among the actions that the departmental heads have been asked to take are warning, stating in the confidential reports, issuing strictures and withholding annual increment. The directions have been issued to all officials in the government departments and local authorities. The state government’s Marathi language department has issued a circular saying that it had been receiving complaints through public representations that almost every department and corporation was using English in their communications, disregarding Marathi.

The circular said that many departments were still issuing circular and government resolutions in English, websites of many departments were also only in English, many municipal corporations were issuing notices, letters, applications and samples only in English. “Complaints in this regard have been raised by the public representatives time and again,” it said.

This is not the first time the state government has taken steps to ensure wide usage of Marathi language in Maharashtra. This year in February, the state government passed a law making Marathi language a mandatory in schools. Months later in May, the government said that Marathi language will become a compulsory subject from the academic year 2020-21 for class 1 to 6 in schools of different mediums and boards in Maharashtra.