Silchar Station: Admin changes Assamese poster, replaces it with Bengali hoarding 

The controversial poster at Silchar Railway Station has been removed. Jal Jeevan Mission’s Cachar office had placed an hoarding of its advertisement at the Railway Station premises. The advertisement was in Assamese and that sparked a controversy. Barak Democratic Front and All Bengali Youth Students Organisation members defaced the poster as a mark of protest. Cachar Police went ahead and arrested a couple of ABYSO members for defacing government property. 

The protesters argued that the Assam Government is imposing Assamese language in Barak. Moreover, they said that it is an insult to the eleven martyrs who laid their lives to secure Bengali as the official language of undivided Cachar district which is now Barak Valley.

Their actions were criticised by the intellectuals of both Barak Valley and Brahmaputra valley. The eleven martyrs never intended to spread hatred said MLA Silchar, Dipayan Chakraborty. FIRs were lodged against the perpetrators in both Silchar and Guwahati.

Pradip Dutta Roy, founder of Barak Democratic Front filed an FIR against the chairman of Jal Jeevan Mission for hurting the popular sentiment of the Bengali population. Also, the complaint stated that it was a violation of the Languages Act. that mandates usage of Bengali for official and government communication.

It seems the the district administration has accepted its mistake as the banner has been replaced with the Bengali hoarding.