education

Updated: Feb 19, 2018 19:43 IST

The Indian Railways’ decision to drop Malayalam as the medium of examination for the recruitment to Group D employees has evoked strong protest in Kerala with the government and opposition demanding the Centre’s intervention.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged the Railways to immediately withdraw the decision to exclude Malayalam alone from the list of regional languages, while opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala sent a letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in this regard.

In a Facebook post last night, Vijayan said the Railway’s decision was a strong “injustice” to Malayalam, the mother tongue of Kerala, and 3.5 crore people of the southern state.

“Candidates from Kerala will be denied chances, when Malayalam is excluded. The Railway’s decision was unjustified,” he said.

The chief minister also wanted the immediate intervention of the Centre into the matter.

Chennithala, in his letter, said Malayalam was excluded from the list while natives of neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were allowed to write the examination in their mother tongue.

The Railways’ decision was ‘discriminatory’ and amounted to denying opportunity for Keralites to write the test in their mother tongue.

Kerala Lok Sabaha MP, MB Rajesh also recently sent a letter to Railway Minister protesting against the railway authority’s decision.