The Maharashtra Government on Wednesday in a state cabinet meeting decided to make Marathi compulsory in all schools till Class 10, and introduce 5-day working week for state government employees.

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Sources told Zee Media that the state government will introduce a bill in the assembly that will make Marathi a compulsory language till class 10. The bill will be introduced in the next budget session of the state on February 24.

After discussions on the bill for three days, the government will put the bill up for voting in the assembly on February 27, Marathi language day.

Currently, Marathi is compulsory till class 4 in schools working under CBSE and ICSE boards. If the bill is passed, the language has to be taught by the schools under the aforementioned boards till class 10.

Speaking on the issue, Minister for Marathi Language Subhash Desai said, "There are 25,000 schools in Maharashtra that do not teach Marathi. (Once the bill is passed) it will be mandatory for all schools running here to teach the Marathi language as part of their curriculum."

Earlier, Desai also said that the Marathi language will be made compulsory in the Maharashtra secretariat. He added that all the documentation files in the secretariat have to be in Marathi. Documentation in any other language apart from Marathi will not be considered.

Moreover, the state government is also planning to introduce five-day working week for state employees. The decision is likely to benefit nearly 20 lakh state government employees on payroll in Maharashtra, who has been demanding that their schedule should be in accordance to the central counterparts.

The new initiative would cover all state government employees, including officers and all grade workers.