Guwahati, March 27: The call for preservation and promotion of Assamese language and ankiya nat (one-act play) and bhaona (drama) figured prominently in the Assam Assembly today.

If senior AGP leaders Phani Bhushan Choudhury and Keshav Mahanta pushed for making Assamese compulsory for Assam secretariat personnel, former chief minister and elected AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta moved a private members' resolution for preservation and promotion ankiya nat and bhaona - creations and contributions of 15th century Vaishnavite saint Xankardeb.

Keshav Mahanta, in his arguments, said both Assamese and English should be made compulsory for those appearing for junior administrative assistant (JAA) posts in place of only Assamese or English. The legislators had drawn the attention of the government towards a newspaper report about a 'non-Assamese official preparing questions and answers for MLA'.

Mahanta said the trend of officials not knowing Assamese is increasing, attributing it to the amendment to the Assam Secretariat Subordinate Service Rule, 1963, which had made Assamese compulsory for those applying for the JAA posts.

'The amendment to the Rule in 2009 saw an applicant sit for a 50-mark paper either in Assamese or English, which I feel led to the rise of government personnel not knowing Assamese. The government should now try to revert to the pre-2009 service rule and also give compulsory six-month training to new government recruits.'

Bhumidhar Barman, senior cabinet minister and one of the oldest members of the House, responded by assuring to push for introduction of a compulsory paper in one's mother tongue in English-medium schools of the state.

He also clarified that the service rule amendment was made to include papers in Bengali and Bodo, the two associate state languages, and Alternative English, which is widely used in the two hill districts. He said all Indians were eligible to sit for the Assam Public Service Commission examinations.

It was also not important who prepares questions/answers for lawmakers. 'What is important is whether these are correct,' Barman said.

In the second session, Mahanta moved the resolution for preservation and promotion of ankiya nat and bhaona, highlighting in his nearly one-hour arguments, the contributions of Xankardeb, a unifying and secular force of his time, while pushing for the government to dedicate a week in a year to ankiya nat and bhaona with budgetary support.

His colleague Keshav Mahanta, BJP's Ranjit Das, AIUDF's Manowar Hussain, Congress's Durlav Chamua, Pijush Hazarika and Arun Phukan supported the proposal in the two-hour discussion, leaving no time for the minister of culture Bismita Gogoi to respond.

Assembly principal secretary Gouranga Das said the issue is alive and the minister can respond in the next session.