Shillong ( Meghalaya), May 19 : Uttar Purba Bangla Sahitya Sabha today decided bring about cohesion among the scattered Bengali speaking people of the North East.
This was unanimously resolved at the observance of Bhasha Saheed Divas here on Friday.
Paying glowing tributes to the 11 martyrs of 1961, speaker after speaker emphasized the need for coming together for achieving the unfinished tasks of protecting Bengali language and the community who were facing discrimination and harassment in different states of the region.
The Sahitya Sabha decided to tackle the problems as highlighted by delegates from various parts of the region in a united manner under a common non-political banner.
It was resolved to form a 21-member coordination committee mandated to evolve an effective working system for keeping the community involved in the common task.
The coordination committee has representatives from Barak Valley, Brahmaputra valley, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. Manas Chaudhuri has been chosen to be the coordinator.
Earlier, the delegates expressed anguish over the lack of community support to the suffering lot. The narrated harrowing experiences of their untold sufferings at the hands of authorities owing to the language they speak. Discrimination on linguistic grounds, it was noted, was getting institutionalised. Some speakers regretted that the Bengali speaking elected representatives hardly espoused the cause of the committee. Others felt that voting on religious consideration too had not made any difference to the fate of the community.
The Sahitya Sabha also decided to observe Bhasha Shaheed Divas every year in all parts of NE as a means to bring the community together.
Among others who spoke on the occasion were ex-minister Manas Chaudhuri, who presided over the meeting, ex-VC of Assam University Dr JB Bhattacharya, Kamalakshya Dey Purkayastha MLA, Sabyasachi Roy of Karimganj , Bengali Youth Federation’s Arup Sarkar, Bishnu Bhattacharya of Dimapur, Jyotirmoy Roy of Dharmanagar, Dhananjoy Chakravorty of Shillong and Kamal Dutta of Hojai.
The programme began with swaheed tarpan, patriotic songs and dance put up by students of Jogananda songs and dance college, Tongla. Secretary of Sahitya Sabha Sanjoy Saha explained the purpose of the meet.
