Agartala: Nov 30: On demand of additional provision for Roman script for Kokborok language in all examinations the TIPRA Indigenous Student’s Federation (TISF) took out a rally in Agartala.
Hundreds of students participated in the rally and during which they also demonstrated protest against Tripura’s Tribal Welfare Minister Rampada Jamatia who had recently through a communication had urged the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for introducing Devanagari (Bengali) script for setting-up question papers and to write answers for Kokborok language like in the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) and which is not acceptable.
The protestors viewed that without any discussion or taking opinions of the concern population, the state government is trying to impose its unilateral decision on the Kokborok language students.
Meantime, former Tribal Welfare and Forest Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia who led the protest said, “Roman script is favourable for writing Kokborok and even the language commission which was formed during the previous regime of Left Front had favoured for that but the BJP government is lingering this issue. TISF is organizing strong movements and protest rally against the decision of state government in favour of Bengali script.”
He added, “The movement is taking place across Tripura and hopefully the state government will take care of the issue because language is a sensitive issue and Kokborok is the first and state language.”
Jamatia demanded that Kokborok Roman script should be introduced immediately and if the government does not resolve it then the movement shall continue and TIPRA Motha knows how to deal with it.
After covering the streets of Agartala the protesters gathered before the Shiksha Bhavan and raised slogans in support of their demands beside submitting a memorandum to the director of higher education.
They viewed that students should have choices which script to use for Kokborok and no one should impose their unilateral decision on them.
They proposed that the Kokborok language people should be given the choices of Roman and Devanagari script option while they write and study Kokborok. Kokborok is the recognized official language of Tripura and is spoken by 31% of the people in Tripura.
