Create awareness about writings of Ambedkar, social reformers: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said the Maharashtra government has to change its mindset with times and make efforts to create public awareness about writings of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and other social reformersA division bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Kishore Sant noted that the Maharashtra government has published wonderful volumes of the handwritten literature of several social reformers but unfortunately not many are aware of itThe government should create awareness about this the court saidThe bench was hearing a petition taken up suo motu on its own in December 2021 after the media reported that the Maharashtra government had halted its project of publishing Ambedkars literatureVolumes of writings of so many social reformers are published by the Maharashtra government but how many people are aware of this These volumes have been published decades ago and some of them are the most wonderful ones Care is not taken Readers have to be brought to the bookshop it saidYou state government have to change your mindset according to the changing times Earlier people used to go to bookshops but now it is all available at doorstep Publishers have to bring people to the shops Justice Varale saidYou are not taking any steps for awareness You will have to make concrete and positive efforts the court said adding that many people do not even know where government bookshops are locatedThe HC also expressed dissatisfaction over an affidavit submitted by the state government and said it did not have all necessary details sought by the courtThe affidavit does not have details about formation of the committee set up to address this issue the names of members of the committee if any meeting has been held by it and details of their remuneration the court pointed outThe bench directed government pleader Purnima Kantharia to file an additional affidavit within two weeksWe are not satisfied with this approach of the government This is not the way we expect the state government to handle such matters Justice Varale saidKantharia told the court that volumes of Ambedkars writings were being distributed to colleges and other institutionsBut the HC said it wants the committee to say this and not the governmentLet the committee make a statement that these books are reaching the readers We want to see if the government is taking appropriate steps to ensure that these volumes are published in reasonable time it addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever