MES demands SIR forms in Marathi, activist asks if Maharashtra is doing the same for Kannada-speaking people
Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) has demanded that the Election Commission of India issue enumeration forms for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in
Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) has demanded that the Election Commission of India issue enumeration forms for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka in Marathi language. During a door-to-door visit of SIR staff in Bandur Galli in Belagavi on July 1, MES leader and former member of the Belagavi city corporation Sunil Balekundri refused to accept the enumeration forms in Kannada.
He asked the Block Level Officer and his staff to leave his house, and come back with forms in Marathi. He said that, as per linguistic minority rules, the Election Commission and the government of Karnataka were bound to issue forms in Marathi. He said he and other MES members would not fill the enumeration forms till they were printed in Marathi.
On July 1, he told reporters in Belagavi that he and other MES leaders would submit a memorandum to the government of Karnataka demanding forms in Marathi. Kannada activist Ashok Chandaragi said, "The central committee of Kannada organisations strongly opposes this trend. We appeal to the Karnataka government to issue forms in Marathi only after confirming if the Maharashtra government is issuing SIR forms in minority languages, like Kannada.
If that State does not honour the linguistic minority rules in that State, why should Karnataka do it? MES leaders should answer this question first," Mr. Chandaragi, convenor of the central committee, said.
The BriefWire