Maharashtra government to introduce a bill making Marathi compulsory in schools

Ahead of the upcoming budget session in Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has decided to make Marathi compulsory till Class 10. 

In a meeting of Business Advisory Committee (BAC) the of Maharashtra legislature, the Maharashtra government decided to introduce a bill which will make Marathi mandatory in all schools, irrespective of their medium of teaching. 

The meeting of BAC was attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, assembly speaker Nana Patole, council chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Devendra Fadnavis along with other leaders from ruling and opposition parties. 

The budget session of the Maharashtra legislature will commence on February 24 and will end on March 20. The BAC has decided that this budget session will go on for nearly 18 working days.

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The bill will be discussed for three days and the government plans to pass the same on February 27 which is the Marathi language day. Once approved, the legislation will be sent to the central government for clearance. 

The Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress government in Maharashtra will also bring a resolution in the legislature to accord the status of classical language to Marathi. 

Currently, the Marathi language is mandatory in CBSE and ICSE run schools till Class 4. However, the Maharashtra government plans to make it compulsory for the later classes too.

Ajit Pawar, who is also Maharashtra Finance Minister, will present the budget on March 6. This was decided in the BAC meeting on Monday. 

In this budget session, the Maharashtra governments plan to introduce a total of five bills and table ordinances. 

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Earlier, the Maharashtra cabinet had already approved the proposal to make Marathi mandatory in all schools. Now, this will be presented and debated in the Maharashtra legislature during the budget session.