Agartala, Aug. 7: The language commission appointed by the Tripura government last year has indirectly recommended the introduction of the Roman script for the tribal Kokborok language instead of the modified Bengali script which is in use now.

The language commission appointed by the Left Front government on June 17 last year under the stewardship of tainted West Bengal scholar Pabitra Sarkar has indirectly recommended the introduction of the Roman script for tribal Kokborok language instead of the modified Bengali in which the language is being currently written.

In a 102-page report submitted to chief minister Manik Sarkar on Friday, the commission made several recommendations for the development of Kokborok and other tribal languages.

The commission, headed by West Bengal scholar Pabitra Sarkar, has as its members literatteurs Shyamlal Debbarma, Chandra Kanta Murasingh and Gitya Kumar Reang. Hiralal Debbarma is its member-secretary.

The commission recorded the opinion of 1,200 tribals regarding a script for Kokborok, and discussed the issue with students and teachers of 50 schools and colleges in tribal areas, a delegation from Tripura University and tribal authors.

?We have not recorded our own opinions on the issue but mentioned in the report that the majority of tribal students, teachers, intellectuals and common people want their language to be written in Roman script,? Sarkar said.

The recommendations include the study of Kokborok upto Class XII by tribal students and even by non-tribals, increasing use of Kokborok in official work and introduction of awards for Kokborok literature.

A whole chapter in the report is devoted to an intensive discussion on the history and evolution of the language, _its evolution upto the present state,the controversy over its script and the opinion of Kokborok-speaking writers, intellectuals, students and teachers.

In the decades old controversy over the script issue, the Left Front has advocated using the modified Bengali script which was devised in the early Seventies by linguists Kumud Kundu Chowdhury and the late professor Suhas Chatterjee.

Former chief minister and legendary tribal leader Dasharath Deb also supported the use of the Bengali script_for Kokborok, though tribal-based regional parties favoured have always been in favour of the Roman script.

Sources in the Left Front said the state government and the front-controlled ADC would be in a dilemma over the script issue after the specific recommendations of the commission.

?We will examine which recommendations of the commission we can accept and which need to be rejected,? tribal welfare minister Jiten Chowdhury said.