Kolkata, Feb 21 On the occasion of the International Mother Language Day, the West Bengal government on Tuesday launched a special portal through which non-resident Bengalis residing in other Indian states and even in other countries will be able to communicate with the state government in times of emergency.
Launching the portal Apan Bangla (Own Bengal) at a colourful function on Tuesday afternoon, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the new portal is meant 'to communicate' and 'to connect' with Bengalis residing out of West Bengal, be it in other states or in other countries.
"Often, they face emergency situations at the places they are residing and at that point of time they want to desperately connect with the state government. At times the non-resident Bengalis feel the necessity of remaining updated about the recent developments in West Bengal. The Apan Bangla postal will provide them the one-stop opportunity for that," the chief minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, the West Bengal minister of state for information & cultural affairs and singer-turned-politician Indranil Sen said that the non-resident Bengalis will be able to participate in different programmes of the state government like business summits and cultural programmes online through this portal staying at the respective places they are now.
"Though these, if necessary, they will be able to access different forms of the state government for public services. They will also have the option to give their valuable advice to the state government for improvement of services and facilities," Sen said.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said while emphasising on the use of Bengali language, the state government gives respect and importance to other languages.
"In Bengali mostly we address our mother as 'Ma'. But if someone addresses his or her mother as 'Ammi', we will also have to accept that. Those coming from Bangladesh after partition have this country as their motherland. But they come here after imbibing certain lingual dialects and cultures. We cannot force them to change that," the chief minister said.
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