Ranchi, June 8: The recommendation of the Jharkhand State Minorities Commission to make Bengali the second language in the state has come as a ray of hope for the Bengali-medium schools in the capital.

However, the different Bengali associations of the capital have reacted cautiously to the recommendations of Md Kamal Khan, the chairperson of the Minorities Commission. Jharkhand Bangla Sangharsh Samiti president Chanchal Chatterjee said the NDA government in the state has come up with a deal to make Bengali the second language to woo voters of the community for the Assembly election.

“The decision to make Bengali the second language should have been taken a long time ago. But as the saying goes — better late than never — the government has realised that the Bengalis are a united lot in the state and their numbers are decisive in any electoral process. The fall of Yashwant Sinha and labour minister Saghnu Bhagat’s experience with a Bengali IAS official went against the NDA in the Lok Sabha election,” he added.

Chatterjee, who was also the working president of the Jharkhand Bangabhashi Samiti, said the decision of the commission was more of a confidence-building measure. The entire process to make Bengali the second language in the state will take a couple of years and anything can happen in between to sabotage the dreams of Bengalis living in the state, he added.

The coeducational Bangiya Parishad Samiti School at Sector II in HEC has about 700 students with only 25 opting for Bengali. School principal Shukla Sen said the school used to have a sizeable number of students who studied Bengali as a second language. However, with the HEC’s fortunes suffering a serious setback, many Bengali families have migrated while some others have taken voluntary retirement. This has led to a fall in the number of students at the school, Sen revealed.

Speaking on the low number of students in Bengali-medium schools of the capital, Chatterjee said the institutions were established in the days of undivided Bihar when Bengali was not given any importance. The schools were starved of funds and the teachers were not adequately qualified, which led to poor results and subsequent degeneration of the schools, he explained.

The census figures for Bengalis have been heavily diluted to suit the desires of a few corrupt and partial leaders, Chatterjee alleged. “The number of students in Bengali-medium schools will only increase when the whole atmosphere for education is changed in the schools,” he added. Chatterjee said if Bengali eventually becomes the second language, its importance will grow automatically and people will make an effort to learn it. The condition of schools and educational institutions will change with government aid and local awareness, he added.