ITSSA delegates meet Assam CM to introduce mother tongues as medium of instruction

Guwahati: A three-member delegation from the Indigenous Tribal Sahitya Sabha, Assam met with the Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday and presented their demands to introduce Mising, Rabha, Tiwa, Deori and Dimasa as the Medium of Instruction till Grade 5 and Karbi till Grade 8. The delegates revealed the discussion to be quite positive and congenial and the Chief Minister assured the introduction of Medium of Instruction status for the said tribal languages immediately and a Cabinet Memorandum would be published after the next Cabinet Meeting. The release of funds for the publication of a Multilingual Dictionary of ITSSA will also be done soon. The meeting was attended by Govind Taid, President ITSSA, Kamala Kanta Mushahary, Secretary General, ITSSA and Rajkumar Rabha, Finance Secretary, ITSSA.

Expressing gratitude to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the exemption of the tribal communities of the state from the ambit of the UCC Bill, the representatives of the ITSSA also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister. The memorandum contained the following key demands, requesting their immediate resolution.

The first point demanded cabinet approval followed by the Governor’s Notification on the introduction of the mother tongue medium of instruction till Grade 5 to Mising, Rabha, Tiwa, Deuri and Dimasa mother tongue and till Grade 8 to Karbi mother tongue.

Secondly, they demanded the release of the unutilized fund of Rs 1.29 Cr under Bhasha Gaurav Asoni in favour of ITSSA for the publication of the Multi-lingual Dictionary consisting of eleven (11) languages eight Tribal languages and Assamese, English and Hindi and endorse the matter to the concerned authority for taking necessary action.

Thirdly, the allotment of a plot of land measuring thirty bighas in the Chapaidang, Bonda-Narengi N.C. village under the Chandrapur Revenue Circle in favour of ITSSA for the construction of its Head Office-cum-Tribal Language-Literary-Cultural Complex as no such complex has been established in Guwahati so far. ITSSA has already identified the said plot of land and erected an office shed with a signboard and the approach road has also been developed, to some extent, by ITSSA. Adding that a team from ITSSA met with the District Commissioner of Kamrup Metropolitan district and apprised him of the matter during his recent visit to the Chandrapur Circle Office on 6 January 2024, they requested the CM to take the necessary steps towards resolution of their demands at the earliest.

Also Read: Central Board of Secondary Education orders mother tongue as medium of instruction

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