Officials from the Municipal Secretary department said that three standing committee members- Vinod Shekhar, Waqarunissa Ansari and Sameer Desai — have written letters seeking for drafts (detailed proposals to be presented at committee meetings) in English. “Accordingly, we are providing them with the copies in English,” an official said.
When contacted, Shekhar confirmed having received copies in English. “Even if we know the language it gets very difficult to go through Marathi copies. We had therefore requested for copies to be sent in English,” he said.
However, the MS department has cleared that the English version will be available only till the time the civic administration drafts the proposal in the language. “Many of these proposals were drafted a few months back when English was used but are coming for approval now. After the civic body’s resolution of 100 per cent Marathi language, the proposals will be drafted only in Marathi and not in English,” said an official.
Corporator Sameer Desai feels the BMC’s political wing headed by Sena- BJP is trying to politicise the language issue. “Sena wants to curb the freedom of non-Maharashtrian corporators by making the Marathi language compulsory. No one is denying the importance of Marathi in the city but there is no harm in the administrative work being carried out in English,” he said.
Desai added, “Commissioner should rise above linguistic politics and think about the entire city. There are other various languages spoken by the members, so why insist on English only?”
“Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has already made the stand clear on usage of Marathi language in the administration work, moreover state legislature also functions in Marathi so we really doubt whether an exception will be made for BMC,” said a Congress corporator.
Phatak had earlier said that BMC was not a corporate body but a public one and for communication with the common man Marathi language was being used. He has said that it would take at-least a year for the civic body to implement 100 per cent Marathi in administrative work. With Sanskitised Marathi being used in the administrative proposals even Sena leaders have asked the civic body to use simpler terms.