in the us is saturated and it needs new markets however chairperson of the ma harashtra state secondary and higher secondary education board mohan awate justified the government decision saying it was not only marathi which had been made an optional language at the hsc level but 19 other languages too fell in the category only eng lish is compulsory there is a choice between various languages for an other paper sixty per cent of the stu dents choose marathi at the hsc le vel while others opt for languages like hindi gujarati french and german he said according to vasant patankar reader in the postgraduate depart ment of marathi in the mumbai uni versity the decision would gradually lead to the elimination of marathi from the graduate and postgradu ate levels the move has intensified concern over the future of marathi the mu nicipal corporation in mumbai has even closed down some marathi medium schools children from sev eral upper class marathi families take pride in saying they cannot read or write marathi state school edu cation minister ramkrishna more has vigorously replied to criticism through a number of articles in newspapers he has come under at tack particularly because he is a for mer college teacher of marathi and is said to be a descendant of sant tu karam a peoples poet