Kerala slammed the Centre and the Indian Railways on Monday for excluding Malayalam from the list of languages in the group D recruitment examination.

Other regional, however, like Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Konkani, Odiya, Assamese and Manipuri have all been retained.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to Facebook on Monday to hit back at this decision.

 “The decision to take Malayalam off the list of regional languages for the recruitment exam for group D posts in the Railways will prove to be a great injustice to Kerala and its people. This will result in a huge loss of opportunities for many applicants from the state,” read the CM’s post.

He also urged for the immediate intervention of the Centre in the issue.

“I urge the authorities from the Central Railways to intervene immediately and resolve the issue. The Railways authorities’ decision cannot be justified in any way,” his post added.

Palakkad CPI(M) MP MB Rajesh too has taken a stand against this decision.

“I have taken up this case seriously.  I have even written to (Railways Minister) Piyush Goyal on the issue. This is unacceptable and a provocative move. They have singled out Malayalam and have considered almost all other vernacular languages. This is clearly a conspiracy against the Malayali candidates,” he told TNM.

The exam can be written in these vernacular languages other than Hindi and Urdu. This was introduced during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as Railways Minister.

According to Malayala Manorama, the Southern Zone of Railways, with Chennai as its headquarters, has about 2,979 posts. This zone also covers the Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad divisions from Kerala. This year, the languages included are Tamil and Telugu, while Malayalam has been exempted.

Meanwhile, Southern Railway Employees Sangh (INTUC), Ernakulam, Secretary B Raison has said that the organization will approach the Central Railways authorities and demand to restore Malayalam as an optional language to give the exams.