Allow mother tongue for civil services main exam: CPI(M)

A demand for allowing the use of mother tongue to write the civil services main examination was raised in the Rajya Sabha today, which received all-round support, as the proponent called for upholding of linguistic rights.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Ritabrata Banerjee (CPI-M) said as the civil services aptitude test in English was discriminatory against Hindi and eight other scheduled languages, it has since then been made non-compulsory.
But the compensatory attempt to those who lost an opportunity last year is yet to be announced, he said.
The CPI(M) member demanded that the main examination should also be allowed to be taken in mother tongue. "Linguistic rights have to be upheld," Banerjee said.

His demand found support amongst almost all opposition parties who demanded a government assurance on the issue.
"It is a serious issue. The Government should take note of it," said Sharad Yadav (JD-U) as no assurance came from the ruling side to look into the issue.

Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said it was up to the government and not him to comment on the matter.
Ali Anwar Ansari (JD-U) demanded enforcement of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act of 2014 to prevent street hawkers from being harassed by municipal authorities, police and anti-social elements.

The Act, he said, has been in cold storage and not even have the rules been framed for its implementation so far.
"The law should be implemented," he said, adding that an estimated 50 lakh families are dependent on this business.
A proper survey to identify hawkers and giving them space for their business has to be done, he said, adding banks should provide them loans and they should be provided insurance cover.
This demand was supported by several opposition parties.
P Bhattacharya (Cong) raised the issue of crime and frauds being glamorised in TV serials and demanded social controls be imposed.

A law must be enacted so that TV serials can be controlled and crime stopped, he suggested.
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During the Zero Hour, BJP member Shamsher Singh Manhas raised the issue of certain villages in Jammu and Kashmir along the LoC where the defence authorities were reported to be considering taking back the land which they had not used earlier.
He hoped that a solution to the issue would be found as thousands of families were staying there.
Chunibhai Kanjibhai Gohel (BJP) raised the issue of pollutants from sulphur based industry, while JMM's Sanjiv Kumar spoke about the underground fires caused by mining and the difficulties faced by people in areas around Dhanbad in Jharkhand.

DMK member T K Elangovan raised the issue relating to cess for welfare of labour in industries like mining. He said that it was now required to collect funds for the welfare of the labour they employ.
He sought to know why a cess cannot be collected for the welfare of workers. "If we can collect cess for 'Swacch Bharat', why not for the welfare of workers," he asked.