Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections will be held next month. Political parties are now gearing up for the BMC elections. Ahead of the elections the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took many decisions, on January 12, which is seen as a step at wooing the Marathi vote bank.
The Maharashtra cabinet approved an amendment to the Shops and Establishments Act which mandates the shops and business enterprises with 10 or more employees to display the signboards of their establishments in Marathi prominently along with English and Hindi. Earlier, though it was mandatory too, many business owners did not comply with it. Those who followed, wrote the names in Marathi in small size letters compared to English and Hindi.
According to the new amendment, the shop owners will now have to display the names in bigger or same size letters compared to other languages.
Actor Sumeet Raghvan has now reacted to this decision of the government. In a tweet the Wagle ki Duniya actor said that this decision of the government is ‘not going to help’. He suggested the government should focus on Marathi schools instead.
“Is this going to help? NO. Save marathi schools,encourage marathi parents to enrol their child in a marathi school. All marathi schools are turning into “English mediums”. Bombay ko Mumbai karne jaisa hai,” said Sumeet.
Is this going to help? NO Save marathi schools,encourage marathi parents to enrol their child in a marathi school. All marathi schools are turning into “English mediums”. Bombay ko Mumbai karne jaisa hai..कृपा करून मोठा विचार करा. दुकानांची नावं मराठीत लिहून काय होणार? https://t.co/XkXJCm1IKl— Sumeet Raghvan सुमीत राघवन (@sumrag) January 13, 2022
Shiv Sena has retained its strong hold on BMC elections for many years. In the 2007 and 2012 BMC elections, Shiv Sena emerged as the winner with the highest number of seats. In 2007 Shiv Sena won 84 seats and in 2012 it secured 75. Though 2017 saw a close fight between Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party again Shiv Sena emerged as the single largest party with 84 seats. 2022 elections will see a close fight between Shiv Sena and BJP.
