Kolkata shop owners urged to use Bengali in signboards

With the Kolkata civic agency urging owners of shops and offices to use Bengali in their signboards, the city’s intellectuals Thursday called for the use of the local language in government signboards as well.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) recently urged owners of private shops and business establishments to use Bengali along with Hindi or English. It, however, did not make it mandatory.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee told IANS: “We have appealed to shop owners of the city to use Bengali in their signboards as the local language should be there.”

Chatterjee, however, said there would not be any deadline.

Bengali poet and litterateur Sunil Gangopadhyay said: “We had earlier hit the streets, demanding the same. But nothing has happened so far.”

“We had also demanded that Bengali be used in the signboards of government departments as well,” said the Sahitya Akademi president.

Asked whether using Bengali language in the signboards of private shops should be made mandatory, Gangopadhyay said shop owners would be using the local language if the municipal corporation made it mandatory before renewing the trade licence.

“Shop owners should give at least one-third space to Bengali in their signboards along with Hindi and English,” the poet said.

Bengali poet Shankha Ghosh seconded Gangopadhyay and said Bengali should be used more and more in the signboards in the metropolis.

“This is a shame that Bengali language is not being seen everywhere in Kolkata. It should not be taken as granted that all rural people who come to the city for work know Hindi or English,” Ghosh said.

He, however, felt that using the local language in signboards should not be made mandatory.

“Store and shop owners will start using Bengali in signboards only if we request them repeatedly,” he observed.