Pune: Infuriated with Pune Police’s usage of rampant Hindi and English language on Twitter, Marathi Ekikaran Samiti, an organisation promoting the local language has complained to the state government in regards with the same. The demand is that the state’s regional language should be used for any kind of official work.
Marathi Ekikaran Samiti, the group based in Mumbai stresses on using Marathi language widely, especially for official and government related works.
The group a few days ago raised a complaint against Pune police for frequently using Hindi/English on its social media. Also, a complaint had been raised about how the police station boards read ‘Station’ and not ‘Thana’. The complaint was sent to the Chief Minister’s Office, Home Minister and Additional Director General of Police.
The Pune Police however has promptly now replied that they will comply and widely use Marathi as the medium to conserve or while posting any updates on twitter/Facebook.
Speaking about the complaint raised on behalf of Marathi Ekikaran Samiti, one of the founding members, Pradeep Samant said, “It is essential that any official/unofficial conversation that happens from the governments or the cops’ side happens in the regional language. And this is a mandate in place.”
The Pune Police’s twitter handle for the past few months has been making use of quotes, dialogues which are in hindi and have some kind of a reference. These tweets are mostly quirky, have pun intended meanings and are aimed at grabbing people’s attention, which they have been quite successful at.
The twitter handle of Pune Police has also garnered a lot of compliments from residents otherwise for their quick and crisp responses.
In a reply written to the organisation, the crime branch has stated, “We have received a complaint which states that we have not been using Marathi language for conservation on Twitter. Usage of both English and Marathi is made on our twitter handle. However, since there are students/citizens from other states we have to tweet in all the three languages which include Hindi/Marathi and English.”
The statement made by the cops’ side also stated a reply is given in the same language in which the query is asked. However, they will be now onwards trying their best to use Marathi to its optimum level.
Amitabh Gupta, the Police Commissioner of Pune said, “I am not really aware of this but will look into the same. However the conversation at times happens in other languages also for better understanding of people who don’t know Marathi.”