AGARTALA, Feb 12: The indefinite rail-road blockade in Tripura was called off on Monday evening after the state government assured that students would be allowed to write Kokborok language papers in the upcoming class 10 and class 12 exams in both Bengali and Roman scripts, a state minister said.
The blockade was called by Tipra Indigenous Students Federation (TISF), the students wing of Tipra Motha, the main opposition party in the northeastern state.
Kokborok, an indigenous language spoken by nearly 24 per cent people of the northeastern state, does not have a script. Students generally write papers for the language in the Bengali script.
“The government decided to allow students to write Kokborok language papers in class 10 and class 12 exams in both Bengali and Roman scripts,” state tourism minister Sushanta Chowdhury told a press conference. Both the exams conducted by the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) will begin on March 1.
Claiming that chief minister Manik Saha is very serious about the future of students, he said the board will allow students to write their Kokborok papers in both Bengali and Roman scripts despite the fact that less than two per cent students write the paper in the Roman script.
Soon after the minister’s assurance, the TISF said the state government has now officially announced that status quo shall be maintained and students shall have the option to choose between Bengali and Roman scripts for writing their Kokborok paper.
“We thank all the warriors, all other student organisations (esp. #TSF), all the socio-political organisations, intellectuals and others who came forward to support our demand and stood up for the rights of our next generation. Hence, we withdraw the rail-road blockade”, the TISF said in a Facebook post.
“The rail-road blockade by students’ organisations has been removed in all the places following assurance from the state government on Monday evening. Train service and vehicular movement will be restored shortly”, said asst inspector general (AIG), law and order, Jyotishman Das Chowdhury. (PTI)
