THANE/MUMBAI: A Hindi film rendition of ‘Vande Mataram’ was mistakenly played instead of the prescribed version of the national song at the concluding ceremony of an initiative to teach conversational Marathi to auto and taxi drivers on Monday.The gaffe at the state government function at Gadkari Rangayatan prompted deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde to express his displeasure at the organisers.The state government had given autorickshaw and taxi drivers 105 days to either learn Marathi or stop plying their commercial passenger vehicles in the state.Action was to be taken against non-compliant drivers by RTO flying squads from Tuesday, but it was postponed by a day as transport minister Pratap Sarnaik convened a meeting of senior motor transport department officials on Wednesday to finalise the standard operating procedure (SOP) for implementation of the decision.Dy CM Shinde has assured full support for drivers willing to learn Marathi, while Marathi language minister Uday Samant has been directed to facilitate the financial assistance required for the programme’s continuation.Shinde was an autorickshaw driver in Thane before entering politics full-time.Besides Shinde, Sarnaik and Samant were present with administrative officials at the concluding ceremony of the Balasaheb Thackeray Marathi Bhasha Pathyakram Abhiyan at Gadkari Rangayatan when a four-minute rendition of Vande Mataram sung by melody queen Lata Mangeshkar for a film was mistakenly played.
