‘Have Marathi signs, make them bigger’, BMC tells shops; Sena’s signboard issue makes a comeback

The push for bigger Marathi signage by the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra coalition govt is being seen as the party’s bid to consolidate the Marathi vote bank ahead of the BMC polls.

BMC building in Mumbai | ANI File Photo

Mumbai: Ashok Sharma runs an electronics store in Mumbai’s Chembur area. The store, Arcee Electronics, in business for the past 60 years, had its signage changed last month. For the past decade and a half, the sign outside his shop mentioned the name of the store in both Marathi, written in Devnagari script, and in English.

But the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) made it mandatory in April for all shops to not only have Marathi signboards in Devanagari script but also stated that if a shop had more than one script in its signage, the Devnagari script should be made more prominent.

The initial deadline given to establishments was 31 May, but the BMC has now extended the deadline to 30 June.

For Sharma, this was a time-consuming, expensive exercise. Speaking to ThePrint, he said that the ever-changing rules about aesthetics are bothersome.

“They should make it permanent and not make Marathi compulsory every couple of years. Suddenly, in a few months, the government will become lax about this and won’t even bother,” he said.

“Our demand is not that the rule should not be there, but they should have given us enough time to make the Change. The board is the face of one’s showroom or office and they want us to do patchwork on them. It looks very bad,” he added.

With the BMC elections scheduled to be held later this year, the Shiv Sena has been in action mode. The municipal corporation was helmed by the party, established in the 1960s over a ‘Marathi pride’ and ‘vocal for local’ agenda, for 25 years before a state-appointed administrator took over in March this year.

Sanjog Kabare, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Special, BMC, told ThePrint, “This is in accordance with the law passed by the Maharashtra government. We are not yet penalising anyone. We are asking shopkeepers to have signboards according to the law, but we are not in any action mode currently since the deadline is now extended. We will wait for further orders from the state government,” he added.

The Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association, a trade body representing shop owners in Mumbai, wrote to the Maharashtra government last week, requesting a further six-month extension to the 30 June deadline to complete the process of redesigning the boards which, the letter said, “requires the help of an architect and board maker to give a decent look to the board and to the Mumbai city’s skyline”.

@Subhash_Desai pic.twitter.com/L55vurl4eI

— FRTWA (@FRTWA2) June 6, 2022

This push for Marathi by the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government is being seen as the party’s bid to consolidate the Marathi vote bank ahead of the BMC elections.

But this is not just a Sena agenda. Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), too, has raked up the issue of Marathi signboards in the past.

What is the rule?

In 2008, following an agitation by the MNS, BMC had issued orders that shops need to have signboards in Marathi.

Later, in 2017, before the BMC elections, the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act was passed by the then BJP-Sena government where the Sena’s plank in the election had been the rights of the ‘Marathi Manoos’ (Marathi people).

Under the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act, shopkeepers were mandated to have Marathi signboards.

However, this year, during the budget session, Maharashtra government made amendments to the act, which made it compulsory to ensure that the font size of the Marathi name in Devanagari script could not be smaller than the font of the other scripts.

The order covers all establishments—grocery shops, offices, hotels, restaurants, bars and theatres.

But business owners want more time…

The Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association has written to Uddhav Thackeray asking for a six-month extension, essentially till after Monsoon.

“There are more than 5 lakh shops and establishments license holder and many of them have Marathi font size smaller in many areas and to make it bigger it requires professional help to redesign name board so it looks neat and standard design [sic]. We urge you to look into this genuine concern,” wrote Viren Shah, president of the association.

Many shopkeepers ThePrint spoke to said that there has been no awareness campaign. “Authorities should teach us, rather than force us,” Chembur’s Sharma said to ThePrint. “They should give us ample time to make the corrections.”

BMC’s Kabare, however, told ThePrint that efforts are being made by the civic body to spread awareness. “We have already issued press notes in newspapers and we will also give out this information on local cable. Secondly, we have also held meetings with ward-level officers who in turn are speaking to retailers in their wards,” he said.

Just a few shops down from Sharma’s stands Vijay Shoes, owned by Nikesh Vira. He says the cost of changing the signboard has been an additional financial burden.

“Previously, we had the name on our sign in Marathi too, but it was in a smaller font size. It cost me Rs 8,000 to redo it. We just did a touch up. We didn’t go for a bigger expenditure. Otherwise it would have cost me over Rs 25,000-30,000,” said Vira to ThePrint. “We just did it on vinyl. Previously the board was on acrylic,” he added.

In its letter, the Mumbai trade body has also requested the state government to not put further hardships on business owners by charging penalties owing to the pandemic and inflation.

(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)