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| Girls perform at the concluding day of the conference at Madarihat in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal on Monday. Telegraph picture |
Madarihat (Jalpaiguri), Jan. 23: The 51st annual conference of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha at Madarihat Chhekamari in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal concluded today on a positive note.
Addressing the gathering, the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief Hagrama Mohilary said the Bodos living in different parts of the world have the right to live as Bodos, who have a distinct language and culture.
“Wherever we are, be it in Nepal, Bangladesh, Bengal or Assam, we have the right to live as Bodos and nobody can deny it,” he said.
Mohilary appealed to the Bengal government to introduce the Bodo medium in primary schools, which have a sizeable number of students from the community. Mohilary also spoke of building a great Bodo nation by bringing the community spread across the world together.
“It is the right time to be united and build a greater Bodo nation across the world. We are proud of our culture, language and traditions and have the right to live as Bodos,” he said.
The BTC chief also lauded the literary leaders of West Bengal Sahitya Sabha saying the Bodos living in Bengal have never stopped speaking in their mother tongue, although they have been deprived of Bodo-medium education in the state.
Alipurduar MLA Devo Prasad Roy assured all possible help and cooperation to see that Bodo medium is introduced in primary schools.
“The Bodo language is the eighth scheduled language and (the Bodo people) have the right to get all the facilities to learn in their mother tongue,” the Trinamul Congress MLA from Alipurduar said.
“We (the Bengal government) have never deprived any community, their identity, language, region and tradition,” he said, adding that he would take up the issue with the government so that the community gets equal opportunity to learn their mother tongue in school.
Bodo historian and writer Hiracharan Narjinary expressed the hope that the language would be introduced as the medium of instruction in schools.Assam transport minister Chandan Brahma and former vice-president of Bodo Sahitya Sabha Gopinath Borgoyary also spoke on the occasion. The Bodo Sahitya Sabha also took some important resolutions, including the decision to urge the Bengal government to make necessary arrangement to introduce Bodo language as the medium of instruction in primary schools according to the Right to Education Act, 2009.
A team comprising members from Central Bodo Sahitya Sabha and Paschim Banga Bodo Sahitya Sabha would soon submit a memorandum, asking to fulfil the demands.
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