West Bengal to Mandate Bengali in All Government Communications from September 1

The Bengali language will become mandatory at all levels of government in West Bengal from September 1, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.

CM Adhikari informed the Assembly that Bengali will be the primary medium for all state government communications, and all internal official correspondence must be written and exchanged in the language. He added that official correspondence directed to the Central Government will be maintained in both Bengali and Hindi.

The Chief Minister made public a letter sent to him on Sunday by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, wherein the Centre emphasised the importance of the Bengali language. In the letter, Shah advised that Bengali should be accorded greater prominence and recommended its active deployment in administrative and official frameworks. Shah stressed the importance of increasing the use of Hindi for interstate administrative channels between the Central and state governments.