Dated Guwahati the 2nd of August 2014 To Mr Tarun Gogoi Hon'ble Chief Minister of Assam Guwahati, Assam

Subject : Petition for urgent attention and steps regarding two important issues concerning the well being and the interests of the Assamese people viz.

1. Issue of misrepresentation/nonrepresentation of the Assamese script in the various International Standards.

2. Issue of the welfare of beleaguered historically dispersed Assamese people in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Sir,

With due respect we wish to draw your attention to the two important issues concerning the well being and the interests of the Assamese community and pray for urgent steps to expedite the matters.

THE ISSUE OF THE ASSAMESE SCRIPT MISREPRESENTATION / NONREPRESENTATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

The status of Assamese script in the International Standards are as follows :

1 A. ISO 15924

International Standard for Names of the Scripts

Status of Assamese script in ISO 15924 : Not included

Hence there is nothing called Assamese script in International

Standards

B. ISO 10646 = Standard

Assamese script misrepresented as Bengali there, meaning Assamese language as per Unicode standard is written by Bengali script.

C. ISO 15919

International Standard for Indic Scripts . There is no

Transliteration Standard for Assamese in this standard, because of the wrong view that Bengali transliteration scheme will work for

Assamese as well.

D. ALA­LC Table

Transliteration charts maintained by US Library of Congress. The

Bengali Romanization scheme is being presented there as the

Assamese transliteration scheme.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE MISREPRESENTATIONS/NONREPRESENTATIONS OF THE ASSAMESE SCRIPT IN INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

2 1. Loss of identity of the Assamese Script

2. Loss of historical heritage hundreds of years old

3. Handicaps and disabilities in the operation of the Assamese script

PROGRESS SO FAR ON THE ISSUE

1. Matter taken up by the us with the Unicode Consortium and also the Government of Assam through memorandum to the Hon'ble Chief

Minister. Assam. Copy of Memorandum obtained publicly from the link below : http://drsatyakamphukan.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/cm_memosml.pdf

2. Unicode Consortium referred the matter to the Department of

Electronics and Information Technology (DEITy), Government of

India, who in turn sought views of the concerned state governments including the Government of Assam.

3. On the 18th of February 2012, Department of Information

Technology, Government of Assam sent proposal to Department of

Electronics and Information Technology (DEITy), Government of

India, seeking separate slot/range for the Assamese script in the

Unicode Standard.

4. Meeting took place between DEITy, Government of India and many

3 experts that included representatives of the Government of Assam on the 13th of June 2012.

5. The one of us wrote by email to the International Organization for

Standardization (ISO) on the 21st of July 2012 asking for correction of the transliteration error of Assamese script in ISO 15919.

6. ISO referred the matter to Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the representative of the Government of India in the ISO. The BIS asked the informant to submit a proposal on the matter. On the 24th of

November 2012 a proposal regarding Assamese script in ISO 15919 was sent. The proposal was discussed in the 14th meeting of the

Documentation and Information Sectional Committee, MSD 5 (the

National Mirror Committee to ISO/TC 46) held on 14 December 2012 at BIS New Delhi.

7. The decision was that in order to include Assamese script in ISO

15919, Assamese scripts needs to be included in ISO 10646­1 which is synchronised with the Unicode Standard. For this, the matter was handed over to the LITD division of the BIS.

8. On the 10th of January 2014, the one of the petitioners was invited to attend and speak in the Fifth Meeting of LITD 20 on the 5th of

4 February 2014 to be held at the BIS office in New Delhi. The said petitioner taking two others namely Mr Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma and Mr

Durlav Gogoi (one of the petitioners) attended the meeting and gave a

Power Point presentation on the issue of the Assamese script and the

ISO Standards.

9. The concerned committee of the BIS, Government of India, decided to form a Panel regarding the issues raised by the said petitioner. The work of the panel is to examine the issues related to Assamese language as it relates to various ISO standards. The composition of the panel was to be as follows subject to their acceptance: a) Shri Peri Bhaskar Rao – Convener b) Dept. of IT, Assam c) Shri Manoj Jain, DeiTY d) Sh Mahesh Kulkarni, CDAC ) Dr. Dilip Kumar Kalita, Abilac, Assam f) Secretary of IT, West Bengal

10. On the 18th of March 2014, the one of the petitioners submitted a detailed report titled “Report on ASSAMESE SCRIPT

MISREPRESENTATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS”, to the Government of Assam through the Managing Director, AMTRON, with copies to the, Chief Secretary Government of Assam, Dispur,

5 Guwahati,. Mr Rajiv Kr Bora, IAS , Principal Secretary, Deptt. of IT,

Government of Assam, Mr Jishnu Barua IAS, Principal Secretary to

Hon'ble Chief Minister, Assam and Mr Anurag Goel, IAS,

Commissioner & Secretary, Deptt. of IT, Government of Assam. Copy of this document for public sharing is available for download from the below mentioned link : http://yadi.sk/d/xkZKV68hKnMAe

11. The matter has not moved beyond this point till now and even the panel for this purpose has also not being formed till now due to non­ response particularly from the side of the Government of Assam .

ISSUE OF THE WELFARE OF THE BELEAGUERED

HISTORICALLY DISPERSED ASSAMESE PEOPLE IN

MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH

The three of the petitioners have visited Myanmar and Bangladesh as part of a documentary film project on historically dispersed

Assamese people across Asia. During the course of that visit , the team were asked by the historically dispersed Assamese people there, to approach the Government of Assam for rendering help for the

6 welfare of the beleaguered Assamese population there.

As part of the commitment given to those Assamese in Myanmar, the said three petitioners met the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Assam, in his office on the 6th of May 2013. The Hon'ble Chief Minister took interest and the matter was referred to the Department of Culture and the

Department of Elementary Education, Government of Assam. Copy of the document Memo Nos. CMS.62/2013/16 & CMS.62/2013/17 of

Hon'ble Chief Minister's Secretariat, dated 23rd of May 2013 are attached herewith.

The said three petitioners met the Commissioner, Cultural Affairs on the 12th of June 2013. It was decided in the meeting that team will submit a proposal to the Government of Assam in that regard.

The proposal was submitted from the side of the said three petitioners on the 26th of November 2013, to the Commissioner, Department of

Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam with copy to the Principal

Secretary to the Hon'ble Chief Minister, Assam. The document is available for public sharing from the link below : http://yadi.sk/d/2NpMo9fJDTMwf

The Commissioner, Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of

Assam on the 20th of January sent a letter to the Ministry of External

7 Affairs Government of India vide memo no CAD145/2013/18. One of the petitioners had enquired about that letter in the office of the

Ministry of External Affairs Government of India, located at South

Block, New Delhi on the 6th of February 2014. The officer dealing with the matter Ms Shweta Singh (Under Secretary), told the said petitioner that the matter requires a “Political Clearance” from the

Ministry.

This information has been conveyed to the Commissioner,

Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam, from the side of the petitioners, but no such decisive action is perceptible from the side of the Government of Assam till date. The issue is hence in a stalemate till date.

PRAYER

It is therefore prayed before the Hon'ble

Chief Minister that steps be taken

expeditiously to resolve both the important

issues, which has got a lot to do with the

well being and the sentiments of the

Assamese people.

8 By taking up these two issues the

Government of Assam will not only be

furthering the well being and the interest

of the people but also the interest of the

Government because it is sure to bring a lot

of good name for the present government

particularly among the ethnic Assamese

population.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely

Dr Satyakam Phukan Mr Aziz­ul Haque General Surgeon Pastor Jorpukhuripar, Uzanbazar Guwahati Baptist Church Guwahati, Assam Panbazar, Guwahati P..N : 781001 P.I.N : 781001 Phone : 99540 46357

9 Mr Tapan Kumar Sarma Mr Durlav Gogoi Lecturer in Physics Computer Software Pub­Sarania Developer Chandmari, Guwahati Japorigog, Guwahati P.I.N : 781003

Mr Binoy Kumar Sarma Entrepreneur Chandmari, Guwahati P.I.N : 781003

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