GUWAHATI: The Guwahati Manipuri Coordination Committee (GMCC) has forwarded a memorandum to Assam Chief Minister (CM) Sarbananda Sonowal over the inclusion of Manipuri language in the Assam Public Service (APSC) exams.
Several other Manipuri bodies have demanded the language's inclusion with primarily three demands. First is to allow Manipuri to be used in APSC and other recruitment exams, second is to declare the language as an associate official language of the state and third is to declare the Manipuri Development Council as an autonomous council.
"The Manipuri Development Council set up under former CM Tarun Gogoi has been defunct under the present government," said Karam Punshi, Secretary, Assam Manipuri Sahitya Parishad. He further revealed that Manipuris are devoid of a fair opportunity as they don't know any of the three languages permissible in the APSC exam.
Currently, Assamese, Bodo, and Bengali are the allowed languages for the exams.
The situation is more difficult for the community in Barak Valley where they have a sizeable population in the Cachar and Hailakandi district. "There are about 100 Manipuri medium schools in these districts and currently we have to use Bengali. We neither have studied Bengali, Assamese, or Bodo," said Singha.
So far, the Chief Minister has not responded to the demands.