– Ronita Torcato

Several education related issues were discussed during the ongoing budget session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly at the Vidhan Bhavan, Mumbai.

Marathi will remain the compulsory language in the state, other languages will not be compulsory, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

Regarding the matter of compulsory Hindi, it was recalled that during the tenure of the previous government (led by Uddhav Thackeray) a committee of 18 experts had been appointed under the chairmanship of Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar. The 101-page report submitted on September 14, 2021, had recommended implementing English and Hindi as second languages using the “three-language policy” from class 1 to 12. The state cabinet had approved it on January 30, 2022.

Asserting that “it is not wrong to be multilingual”, CM Fadnavis said prime minister Narendra Modi “has provided the facility to learn all courses from engineering to medical education in the mother tongue thanks to his historic decision in the New Education Policy, which gives importance to the mother tongue of students in primary, technical and medical education.”

(The first MBBS course in Hindi in the country was launched in October 2022, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.)

As regards scholarships, funds have been disbursed to 95.58 percent of the students who applied for scholarships in higher education, Fadnavis said. 98 percent of the students in 2023-24 and 96 percent of the students in 2024-25 benefitted under the Punjabrao Deshmukh Hostel Subsistence Allowance Scheme and Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj Education Fee Scheme, he said.

The youth training scheme at Mantralaya has supported about one lakh youth by giving them the opportunity to work for 11 months in various departments of the state government.

The chief minister clarified that ‘backdoor entry’ for permanent jobs for anyone is not possible through this scheme.

It is pertinent to note that the interns were given handsome compensation each month for “observing” the functioning of the state admin.

Speaking about employment generation, chief minister Fadnavis said that 767 Deendayal Rozgar Melas were organized in 2024-25. Approximately 7,273 entrepreneurs participated in these melas. A total of 1,27,357 candidates attended, from which 38,512 were selected for employment. In 2025-26, 372 job fairs were organized. As many as 20,069 entrepreneurs attended the melas.Out of the 1,29,657 candidates who participated, 24,101 were selected for jobs, he informed.

On the issue of the mental health of students, Fadnavis said that the government has prepared a report on the ‘Maharashtra Student Protection and Mental Welfare Policy 2025 ‘. A special ‘Task Force’ has been constituted for the implementation of this policy. The task force is reviewing the steps taken by each university, he told the Legislative Assembly, which is currently in session, with 288 members.

Significantly, a bomb threat message was received on the government’s official website before the start of the day’s proceedings. Ram Shinde, the chairman of the state legislative council, said the email which was received at 6.57 am warned that four places were targeted, including Mumbai Metro, the High Court, Vidhan Bhavan and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

It is pertinent to note that March 12 marks the anniversary of the day 33 years ago when Bombay was shaken by 12 coordinated terror blasts across the metropolis in which 257 lives were lost and over 1400 injured. Masterminded by Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon as revenge for the December 6, 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, the serial RDX blasts targeted hotels, offices and landmarks like the BSE, leaving the city shell shocked.

Also read: NCERT plans to introduce 10 compulsory subjects in Class IX