Civic group leaders and rights activists on Friday demanded that the government should take measures against distorted pronunciation of Bangla language.
Staging a sit-in in front of the National Museum, Nagarik Sanghati also demanded initiatives to preserve the mother tongues of all ethnic communities.
Speakers at the programme alleged that some ill-motivated quarters were active in distorting the language, some FM radio stations, individuals and organisations leading the process.
They said presenters of most of the FM radio channels broadcast programmes in Bangla with a highly affected pronunciation and inserting  in it English words and phrases that makes the language sound grotesque and their entire presentation ugly.
Such distortion of language is indeed an insult upon the sacrifice of the language movement martyrs, they observed.
Saying that the month of February is coming ahead when the nation with high emotion and respect remembers the language movement martyrs, the speakers said it is high time the government and the people as well vowed that such dishonour to the nation’s mother tongue will not be endured any more.
Language movement veteran Ahmad Rafiq also urged the government to take immediate action to save the fast diminishing languages of the ethnic communities of the country.
The speakers at the sit-in also referred to a High Court directive passed on February 16, 2012, that prohibited distorted pronunciation and presentation of Bangla, directed all media houses to broadcast programmes using proper Bangla and asked the cultural ministry secretary, chiefs of Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and telecommunication authorities to take measures in this regard.
Despite the order the media houses, the FM radios in particular, have continued to broadcast programmes in distorted Bangla, they alleged.
Presided over by the Nagarik Sanghati general secretary Sharifuzzaman Sharif, the sit-in was also addressed by Dhaka University Teachers’ Association former general secretary Akhteruzzaman, filmmaker Moshiuddin Saker, engineer M Inamul Huq and cultural activists HM Sayeed and Bhaskar Rasa.