By IANS
Mumbai : It is makeover time for India’s richest civic body – the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). An English tutor has been invited by the civic authority to improve its officials’ grasp over the language.
With its officials having to regularly interact with visiting foreign delegations, many employees are embarrassed by their poor command over English.
To solve the problem, the municipal commissioner wants all officials at the corporation’s headquarters to go through a crash course in English – although the official language used at the civic corporation is Marathi.
“There have been instances of language blunders and we feel that as the first step, all employees should go through a crash course in spoken as well as written English,” said Municipal Commissioner J.M. Pathak, who had earlier served as the state’s education secretary.
“Though the project is subject to feedback from BMC employees, a language blooper at the municipal secretary’s office led to the idea of brushing up the English language skills of the employees.
“We have roped in one of the reputed tutorial firms in the city to give English lessons. We have to deal with foreign firms and dignitaries, so being able to converse fluently in English will be an added advantage,” Pathak added.
Last Saturday, some 80 officials were randomly selected from various departments for introductory lectures by the tutorial firm.
“We are in the process of gathering feedback from the first batch. If the feedback is satisfactory, and the officials are satisfied, we plan to hold another introductory class some time this week and the rest of the training will follow suit,” Pathak said.