Raipur, July 1 -- Union Minister Ramdas Athawale welcomed the Maharashtra government's decision to withdraw the three-language policy and said that the Devendra Fadnavis government cancelled the policy even before agitations took place.

Speaking to the reporters on his visit to Raipur on Tuesday, Athawale said, "There was a controversy in Maharashtra regarding the three-language formula. Hindi has always been our national language, and we respect it, but some people argued that there is no need to teach any other language in Marathi schools. Marathi people took an opposing stance. However, Devendra Fadnavis' government hit a sixer and cancelled the decision to (mandatorily) use the Hindi language even before any agitation took place."

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