Delhi Public School, Bhilai organised an Inter-school Hindi Debate Contest at its Maroda Sector School Complex on Saturday.
The chief guest on the occasion was RK Gopal, Member, SMC, DPS Bhilai & DGM (Education), BSP, Bhilai. The panel of distinguished judges comprised Anita Sawant, Senior Scientist, Environment, Chhattisgarh Govt, Dr Sheela Sharma, HOD-Hindi, Govt New College, Khursipar, Acting Principal of Govt Navin College, Khursipar, Bhilai and journalist Yogesh Kumar Gupta.
The topic for the debate was ‘nation’s self-respect and overall development is possible only when Hindi language is given constitutional recognition as national and official language’.
The schools that participated were DAV, Hudco, Bhilai; Delhi Public School, Durg; Krishna Public School, Nehru Nagar, Bhilai; Shankaracharya Vidyalaya, Hudco, Bhilai; St Xavier’s Sr Sec School, Borsi, Bhilai; Senior Secondary School, Sector 10, Bhilai; DAV, Jamul and the host school Delhi Public School, Bhilai.
The programme commenced with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp accompanied by Saraswati Vandana sung by Naynika Nandi of Class X. This was followed by the introduction of the chief guest, judges and other dignitaries and then, bouquet presentation.
The cultural secretaries Shreyas Shrivastav and Alka Choudhary apprised the participating teams and the audience about the rules of the debate. The participants expressed themselves clearly and vehemently for and against the motion.
Dr Anita Sawant congratulated all the participants, who spoke and appreciated the school for choosing such a contemporary topic for supporting Hindi. She also opined that technical books should also include Hindi terms so that the people can use it for official purposes. She translated the famous lines of the American poet Robert Frost “Miles to go before I sleep” - to inspire the users to put in more efforts to help Hindi get its deserving status. The other esteemed judges too approved and shared their own views in favour of the topic.