Tawde Puran

Marathi Abhyas Kendra

Maharashtra Day

Deepak Pawar; (Right) The first non-white paper on the Marathi language that was published in 2013

Navi Mumbai

Marathi Abhyas Kendra, a non-profit-organisation working for the preservation and promotion of Marathi language, announced on Wednesday that it will publish the second part of the ‘non-white’ paper on Marathi language and its status in Maharashtra. This time, it will be named after the state’s Education Minister Vinod Tawde, who also heads Marathi language ministry, in an apparent dig at the minister for doing ‘little’ to preserve and promote Marathi.“We will publish the ‘’ on August 15,” announced the founder-president of, Deepak Pawar, at the event organised in Parel Social League Service on the occasion ofThe NGO launched its online portal along with other activities on Wednesday, and the president announced the direction of the future work.Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Pawar said, “In 2013, we published the first part of the non-white paper. In the Congress-NCP regime too, the Marathi language policy and programmes were neglected, but the situation has worsened now, and minister for the Marathi language ministry, Mr Vinod Tawde, is just busy with events. He has no will to do real work or implement the policies already announced.”The Marathi Abhays Kendra will include minute details in the ‘Tawde Puran’ about the government’s ‘inaction’ on the Marathi language front.First the state government could not build the Marathi Bhasha Bhavan in Mumbai. The Rs 80-crore project has made no progress ever since it was approved in 2013 by the then Congress-NCP government. The Marathi Bhasha Bhavan will work as the conservatory of the Marathi language, which is among the top five spoken languages of India.The second objection raised by Pawar is about no decision being taken about a committee appointed by the government to finalise the Marathi language policy. Sadanand More submitted its report a year ago. Nothing has happened on that report till date, Pawar said.Thirdly, the directorate of languages has no full-time director for many months now, and it is affecting the work of preserving the Marathi language, he said.Bhushan Gagrani, principal secretary in Chief Minister’s Office, told Mumbai Mirror, “It is a fact that the directorate has no fulltime director. But there are administrative issues which we are trying to address. The criteria for this post in the recruitment rules need to be changed. Then only will we be able to fill the position.”About the long-pending ambitious project of Bhasha Bhavan, Gagrani said that, “It is a fact that the conservatory building could not be built as promised earlier. The search for the land has been completed. We were allotted the land at the BKC, but it will be used by Metro III for temporary purposes for the next three years. So, we have allotted a good parcel of land for the sub-centre of Marathi Bhasha Bhavan in Airoli,. The CIDCO will publish tender for the same once the EC’s code of conduct is over.”The Marathi Bhasha Bhavan centre will remain in BKC after three years but the huge building will be constructed in Navi Mumbai because of the availability of land. Initially, the plan to build a Bhasha Bhavan in South Mumbai at Rang Bhavan could not be implemented because the government did not get the approval from the heritage committee.About the pending Marathi language policy report, Gagrani said, “Very soon the report of Sadanand More committee will be tabled before the cabinet. We were waiting for the recommendations from other departments concerned such as Higher and Technical Education. With all departments response to the More committee report we will be presenting it in the cabinet for further discussions.”Tawde, however, slammed Pawar’s intention for the name they have picked up for the upcoming ‘non-white’ paper. “Because of our efforts, 36,000 students have shifted from English schools to Marathi schools. Our ministry is doing a great job. But the man behind this report does not want to give us credit or praise our efforts,” the minister told Mumbai Mirror.