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Ahead of BMC polls, Maharashtra Govt Orders All Shops, Establishments To Display Signboards In Marathi
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Maharashtra, 13 Jan 2022 9:58 AM GMT
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Creatives : Tashafi Nazir
For most people, journalism sounds hectic and chaotic. For her, it's a passion she has been chasing for years. With an extensive media background, Tashafi believes in putting efforts on presenting a simple incident in the most interesting way.
The state cabinet chaired by CM Uddhav Thackeray approved the amendment to the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act, 2017. The amendment mandates shops and business establishments with less than ten workers to display signboards in Marathi.
Ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) elections, the Maharashtra government has made it mandatory for all shops and establishments in the state to display signboards in Marathi.
The amendment also makes it compulsory that the font of the Marathi-Devanagari script cannot be smaller than that of other languages, the Indian Express reported.
As per reports, the decision on Marathi signboards is Shiv Sena's attempt to woo the Marathi vote bank for BMC polls, likely to be held in a few months.
The state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday, January 12, approved the amendment to the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017. The amendment mandates shops and business establishments with less than ten workers to display signboards in Marathi.
Small Shops To Display Their Boards In Marathi
Subhash Desai, Minister for Marathi language and senior Shiv Sena leader, said that after the 2017 law came into effect, the government witnessed that the establishments and shops with less than ten employees were evading the rules. "The state government had received such complaints, and there was a demand for redressal. So, the cabinet decided to amend the 2017 Act to fix the loopholes. Therefore, small shops will have to display their boards in Marathi just like the big shops," he said.
The minister added that the nameplates on all shops along the road will be displayed in Marathi from now onwards, considering most of the establishments have less than ten workers.
"An amendment also makes it mandatory that the letters in Marathi-Devanagari script cannot be kept in small size than letters in other scripts," said Desai. He added that a bill would be tabled in the legislature's budget session to give effect to the amendment.
In the last two years, Shiv Sena, an alliance partner in Maharashtra's ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, has taken forward its agenda on the Marathi language. Last year in July, the state legislature passed the bill amending the Maharashtra Official Language Act 1964 to effectively use the Marathi language in administrative work in all government offices. In February 2020, a bill was passed in the Maharashtra legislature, making the state's regional language a compulsory subject from the 1st to 10th standard in the schools of all boards.
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