Punjabi Maa Boli Satkar Sabha to take out march from Feb 18

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 12

The Punjabi Maa Boli Satkar Sabha on Tuesday announced that they would take out Gurmukhi Chetna March in the state. Through the march, they would give a call to honour their mother tongue (Punjabi) on National Language Day. They would stage a protest against the department of language in Patiala.

This was stated by Hardeep Singh Mehraj and Lakhbir Singh Lakha Sidana. They said the march would start from Takht Damdama Sahib on February 18. It will reach Amritsar at night on February 18. The next day it will pass through Jalandhar and Khatkar Kalan and reach Anandpur Sahib. On February 20, passing through Chandigarh, it will reach Fatehgarh Sahib and on February 21, they would stage a protest outside the department of language in Patiala.

They said despite the fact that Punjabi was their mother tongue, it was shocking to see that at some places, boards did not even use Punjabi. The language was not being given the respect and importance it deserves.

A member of the sabha said the Union Government was keen on promoting Hindi as part of its Hindutva agenda and English as part of its deals with corporate houses. If we lost our touch with the mother tongue, we would be out of touch with our history, culture, traditions, literature and values. We would not let this happen as it was not good for the present as well as future generations.

Earlier both the leaders under the banner of sabha had defaced road signs on the Bathinda-Goniana and Bathinda-Barnala routes by blackened the English and Hindi versions on signboards to promote Punjabi.