Traders and shopkeepers in Kolkata have been asked to also use Bengali in their signboards, failing which their licences will be cancelled, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has said.
All businessmen, traders and shopkeepers having KMC licences will have to write their signboards in Bengali in addition to any other language, city mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who signs all official documents in the vernacular language, said on Thursday.
Behind the move are city's intellectuals, who, through a Bangla association, have been demanding the use of Bengali in signboards, billboards and hoardings for the last two years.
The association, which had earlier given a deadline to shopkeepers for the use of Bengali, had also resorted to violence at Esplanade in downtown Kolkata to press their demand.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2001 had changed the name of the city from Calcutta to Kolkata, which sounds more Bengali, as demanded by the intellectuals.