Tripura CM assures Tipra Motha of forming panel on Kokborok language script issue — Opposition leader

AGARTALA — Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha assured a Tipra Motha delegation of forming a committee to look into its demand that students who have taken Kokborok, an indigenous language of the state, as a subject in CBSE-run schools be allowed to write papers in both Bengali and Roman scripts, a senior leader of the party has said.

Kokborok, which is spoken by nearly 24 per cent people of the northeastern state, does not have a script. Students generally write papers for the language in the Bengali script.

“We have a detailed discussion with the chief minister on the issue of writing answers in Bengali and Roman scripts for the Kokborok language in CBSE examinations. We explained to him why the issue is important for the students to those who have taken Kokborok as a subject in CBSE-run schools,” Tipura Motha leader Animesh Debbarma said.

Debbarma, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, said there has been no bar in writing answers in Bengali and Roman scripts in the Kokborok language in Tripura Board of Secondary Education.

He said the chief minister has given the delegation a patient hearing regarding the use of Roman script for the Kokborok language and assured it that he will constitute a committee involving all stakeholders to look into the matter.

Debbarma said the government has handed over 100 schools to CBSE under the Vidyajyoti scheme.

“Vidyajyoti schools mean CBSE-run English medium schools. Can an English medium school student be able to write his Kokborok examination in Bengali script overnight? It is not possible,” the Tipra Motha leader said on Wednesday.

Kokborok is the mother tongue of the Borok people. It belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family and is close to other languages of the northeastern region such as Bodo, Garo and Dimasa.

Nine sub-tribes of the Borok community speak this language. According to the 2011 census, 8,80,537 (23.97 per cent of the state’s total population) people speak this language, according to a Tripura government website.