Sahitya Sabha accuses Govt of ignoring Assamese

The assam official language act, enacted way back in 1960, is still lying unimplemented, with the Assam Sahitya Sabha...

The assam official language act, enacted way back in 1960, is still lying unimplemented, with the Assam Sahitya Sabha, the highest literary body of the state, accusing the Government of being apathetic towards such a sensitive issue.

“The Official Language Act was passed in 1960. But it is over 47 years now and nothing worthwhile has been done by the successive state governments to implement it,” eminent litterateur and president of Assam Sahitya Sabha Kanaksen Deka said on Wednesday.

The Sabha has set October 14 as the deadline for the state Government to at least start enforcing the Act, pointing out that the All India Official Language Conference had in 1978 itself recommended that all states urgently implement their respective official languages.

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“There is a popular misconception that we are pressing for imposing Assamese as the official language in the state. The reality is that the Act in 1960 itself had provided for use of Bengali as associate official language in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley and Bodo in the Bodo-majority districts,” Deka said.

He said the Sabha failed to get any positive response from the state Government in this regard even after several meetings with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi over the past few years. “We met the Chief Minister several times on this issue. He would verbally agree that the Act should be implemented but when it comes to actual implementation, we have hardly seen anything happening,” Deka said.

The Sabha chief, however, clarified that there was no move or appeal to wipe out English or any other language. “We have nothing against English or any other language. English or Hindi may follow, but the official language must get first preference,” he said.

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