Marathi will soon be made compulsory in BEST admin

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has decided to make Marathi compulsory in the day-to-day proceedings of the administration.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has decided to make Marathi compulsory in the day-to-day proceedings of the administration.

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In a BEST committee meeting held on Friday, committee chairman Anil Patankar ordered the administration to make Marathi compulsory in all offices by the end of February 27, Marathi Language Day. “Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered to make Marathi compulsory in Mantralaya and the process is going on. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, too, has taken such an initiative…This year, we will celebrate Marathi Language Day by using 100% Marathi in BEST offices,” he said.

The Sena, which is the ruling party in the BMC, is not happy with the use of English in the administration of BEST, a BMC undertaking.

Party members who are nominated to the BEST committee feel the use of English creates a barrier between the administration and common man.

Anil Kokil, committee member and Shiv Sena corporator, said, “The state government had issued a circular making the use of Marathi compulsory in all official communication and correspondence. Even after that, BEST administration has been using English in its documents.”

Other committee members, including Ashish Chemburkar and Shrikant Kawathankar, suggested that all BEST documents, committee reports and supplementary documents should be in Marathi. Marathi should also be the language for communication among all officers, including committee members. The Opposition members did not object to the decision taken by BEST committee.

No takers for coins worth ₹12 crore

As on January 1, 2020, BEST has around ₹12 crore in coins of ₹1, ₹2, ₹5 and ₹10 denominations, which have not been deposited in banks for the past two months.

According to committee member Shrikant Kawathankar, the coins are lying in gunny bags at all depots. However, bank officers are not ready to deposit bulk coins as they don’t have a coin sorting machine. BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde said a discussion with RBI was on and they will sort the issue soon.