The district committee of the Kerala Bus Transport Association (KBTA), affiliated to the Kerala State Vyapari Vyavasayi Samithi, has alleged that the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD), Ernakulam, despite a government directive, has been willfully not using the mother tongue in the official documents of the department.
Suresh Oommen, who is the general secretary of the association, alleged that the officials were blatantly violating the government directive to use Malayalam, which was officially recognised as ‘sreshta bhasha’.
“We had given representations to the Transport Commissioner and the District Collector who is also the chairman of the Regional Transport Authority.
“But the department has not initiated any steps to change the official documents into Malayalam ”, he said.
Suresh Oommen alleged that the Transport Commissioner had pointed out several times that, to decrease the number of accidents, it is important to create more awareness about the rules and regulations among the public.
“Most of the employees and employers associated with the Transport Industry do not have much proficiency in English.
“But in most of the file transactions, the department is using English.
The employers and employees are becoming helpless because of this.
If the authorities are serious about bringing down accidents they should take concrete steps to use Malayalam in the file transactions”, he said.
The association also pointed out that most of the official meetings are held in English and this is causing immense problems for the people associated with the transport industry.
“We believe that the department is not encouraging Malayalam because certain officials in the department have vested interests. This cannot be allowed”, Suresh Oommen said.