Bangla crash course for non-Bengali IAS, IPS working in West Bengal

Keman Ache? If you are not familiar with Bengali, it means “How are you?” In fact, Netaji Subhash Open University (NSOU) has now planned to offer a six-month crash course in Bangla mainly for non-Bengali bureaucrats including IAS and IPS working in West Bengal.

For the record, NSOU is an open university in West Bengal which has repeatedly received requests from IAS and IPS associations to provide courses in vernacular language. The working knowledge in Bengali is essential for non-Bengali officers of the state if they wish to get regular promotions.

In addition to IAS and IPS, other central government offices from excise, customs, income tax and banks would also stand to get benefits from the proposed course.  According to initial plan, the university has designed two courses, one based on printed study material and the other being an online course. According to media reports, the online course is being named as "Bangla Shekho".

The move comes at a time when more and more bureaucrats from West Bengal want to get out of the state and move to Delhi on Central deputation. No wonder, the Bengali lobby in Delhi’s corridors of power is getting stronger, and the Bhadraloks are eagerly waiting for 1974 batch IAS Pulok Chatterjee to come back from Washington and grab the coveted cabinet secretary’s post once KM Chandrasekhar retires in June 2011. 

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