Guwahati: The Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) Urban Department placed English signs in Kokrajhar town, but the All-Bodo Students Union (ABSU) members vandalised them.
The ABSU members blacked the English signboards with inks on Monday and pleaded with the Urban department to refrain from doing the same in the future.
The student organisation further asserted that Bodo is the official language in the BTR and that it is listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution, and that Assamese citizens, including the government, are well aware of this.
“We have seen our Bodo language has been deprived repeatedly despite the fact that it is in the 8th schedule of the Constitution. From last two days, we have witnessed that the street signboards placed by the BTR urban department are written in only English language, this is not acceptable to us. We want first priority should be given to the Bodo language and then Assamese and third English in the entire BTR region,” said Kampa Basumatary, General Secretary, ABSU Kokrajhar district unit.
The ABSU district general secretary also urged the Urban department in the BTR to put up new signboards specifically in Bodo language from the first month of Baisakh (i.e. April 14 onwards as per English calender) in urban areas.
“We had earlier requested the urban department of the BTR to install signboards specifically written in Bodo language in addition to other languages such as Assamese and English, but, we have come across some videos on social media where we found that they have not met with our demands,” said the ABSU leader.
In addition to this, ABSU has advised all large and small businesses in the entire BTR to employ the Bodo language on their billboards.
It should be noted that some people and organisations in Cachar vandalised a government sign at the Silchar railway station earlier this year.
The Brahmaputra valley was in turmoil as a result of the occurrence.
Once the Cachar district administration filed a FIR against the groups, the Cachar officers arrested a number of the aforementioned organisations’ members in connection with the matter.