KOLKATA

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has made it compulsory for all shops, restaurants, and other commercial establishments in the city to display Bengali on their signboards alongside other languages.

According to officials, February 21, 2025, has been set as the deadline for the implementation of this mandate.

Kolkata Municipality Secretary Swapan Kundu told local mediapersons that civic body officials have already started communicating with owners of shops, restaurants, and commercial centres in the city about putting up Bengali signboards. They have reportedly been informed that names of the establishments and crucial information should be written in Bengali alongside other languages ​​on their signboards. 

In October this year, shortly after the Centre recognised Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit as classical languages, Trinamool Congress councillor Biswaroop De had proposed at a civic body meeting in Kolkata that all signboards in public and private offices should include Bengali in addition to other languages. He had also suggested that all notices, letters and documents of the Corporation should also be published in Bengali. 

Later in October, KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim had also echoed similar sentiments and said that all hoardings and banners associated with KMC will be displayed in Bengali. He had also said that he would urge private agencies and shops to display their signboards in Bengali

Kolkata:

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has made it mandatory for every commercial establishment in the metropolis to put up signboards in Bengali along with other languages, an official said.

The civic body is determined to enforce the usage of Bengali in signages, and has set a tentative deadline of February 21, 2025, to initiate the process, he said.

Municipal Secretary Swapan Kundu said the corporation is in contact with the owners of shops, restaurants and other business establishments to ensure that names and other information about the outlets are written in Bengali in addition to any other language.

In October, TMC Councillor Biswarup Dey had said at a KMC session that all signboards in public and private offices should have Bengali text apart from other languages and all notifications, letters and documents of the municipal corporation should also be published in Bengali.

Dey had made the proposal in the wake of Bengali receiving the distinction of a classical language by the Centre on October 3, along with Assamese, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit.

KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim, too, had earlier said he will urge private advertising agencies and shops to use Bengali in their signages.

“I have nothing against the use of Hindi, English or other languages in banners, festoons, signages and such modes of communication. But, Bengali should also be there along with the others,” Hakim had said.

In a similar move by the KMC in 2007, the then Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya had issued notices to make shop owners mandatorily use Bengali along with other languages in signboards, but it did not materialise. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)