Assam: ABSU Members Deface English Signboards in Kokrajhar

The members of the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) defaced English signages placed by the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) Urban Department in Kokrajhar town.

On Monday, the members of ABSU blackened the English signboards with inks and urged the Urban department not to repeat the same in future.

The students’ body also claimed that the people of Assam including the government are well aware that Bodo is the official language in the BTR and it is in the eighth schedule of the Constitution as well.

“We have seen our Bodo language has been deprived repeatedly despite the fact that it is in the 8^th schedule of the Constitution. From last two days, we have witnessed that the street signboards placed by the BTR urban department are written in only English language, this is not acceptable to us. We want first priority should be given to the Bodo language and then Assamese and third English in the entire BTR region,” said Kampa Basumatary, General Secretary, ABSU Kokrajhar district unit.

The ABSU district general secretary also urged the Urban department in the BTR to put up new signboards specifically in Bodo language from the first month of Baisakh (i.e. April 14 onwards as per English calender) in urban areas.

“We had earlier requested the urban department of the BTR to install signboards specifically written in Bodo language in addition to other languages such as Assamese and English, but, we have come across some videos on social media where we found that they have not met with our demands,” said the ABSU leader.

Apart from this, ABSU has also urged all the big and small business establishments in entire BTR to use Bodo language in hoardings.

It may be mentioned that earlier last year, certain groups and individuals in Cachar had defaced a government hoarding at the Silchar railway station.

The incident had sparked uproar in the Brahmaputra valley.

Later, the Cachar district administration had lodged an FIR against the groups, following which the Cachar police had arrested several members of the said groups in connection to the case.

Also Read: Assam: Two Arrested For Defacing Assamese Hoardings In Silchar