Mumbai: Maharashtra minister for Marathi language Uday Samant on Monday said the government will table in the assembly the Mashelkar Committee report recommending Hindi as a mandatory third language from Class 1 in state schools.
Speaking in the assembly on the debate on supplementary demands of the Marathi language department, Samant said the Mashelkar Committee report was submitted to the then government on February 22, 2022.
“It was a report on how higher and technical education should be as per NEP (National Education Policy) 2020. (In it) there was a recommendation that Hindi be made a mandatory language from grade I to 12,” he said in the House.
The state information department had also posted on social media quoting (the then) chief minister that the report has been submitted and accepted, he pointed out.
“Who was the chief minister (at the time),” he asked without referring to Uddhav Thackeray, who led the state from November 2019 to June 2022.
Samant asserted that the Mahayuti government has not made Hindi a mandatory language from Class I.
“The government will table the Mashelkar report on the floor of the House,” Samant said.
While withdrawing two government resolutions (GRs) on Hindi and the three-language policy, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said former CM Uddhav Thackeray had accepted the Mashelkar panel suggestions on implementing the three-language formula from grade one.
In a press conference, Fadnavis had also shown Thackeray’s signature on the minutes of the cabinet meeting in which it was mentioned that the Mashelkar Committee report had been accepted.
Responding to the claims at the time, Thackeray had said report was submitted during his tenure but no action could be taken on it since “our government was toppled soon after”.
