Jamshedpur, Dec. 28: The governing body members of Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan, an all India Bengali literary association, passed several resolutions on the concluding day of the 77th All-India literary conference today.

The resolutions aim to preserve Bangla culture and tradition.

Some of the resolutions are declaration of Bengali as the second official language of the state, setting up of a Bangla academy, increasing the marks of Bengali from 50 to 100 and according a memorial status to emiment writer Bhibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay?s ancestral home at Ghatshila and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar?s home at Karmatar.

The governing body members also advocated recognition of the Bangla Academy by Madhya Pradesh government and establishment of a similar academy in Assam. The plenary session was chaired by the outgoing president of the sammelan, Tapan Sikdar.

The members expressed anger over the dilly-dallying attitude of the state government in according a second official language status to Bengali.

The members wanted to know the reason of the delay although a recommendation has already been made by the state minority commission.

General secretary of the newly-elected executive committee of the sammelan, Jayanta Ghosh told The Telegraph that a copy of the resolution will be sent to the respective state governments for necessary action.

A copy of the resolution will also be sent to the Centre.

The governing body of the sammelan decided to organise its next conference in Mumbai.

Ghosh said according Bengali a second language status in Jharkhand was the focus of their discussions at the four-day conference.

Members of all the 106 branches of the sammelan spread in various parts of the country supported the move, he said.

The last day of the conference had three sessions, which focussed on Bengali magazine, music, art and songs. The first session on Bengali magazines was conducted by Jeevan Moy Dutta, a member of the governing body of the sammelan and Janab Abdur Rauf, a Bengali writer.

A major attraction of the conference this year was an art exhibition organised by Tagore Society at the venue of the conference. The theme of the exhibition was ?Rabindranath and his life?.

Meera Roy, a senior member of the sammelan, said, ?The conference gave the participants an opportunity to express their views on Bengali literature and language.?

Nandikar, a theatre group from Calcutta, presented two plays ? Pata Jhore Jai and Barda on the concluding day.