Legislative Council Pay attention to Urdu, legislators urge govt

Legislative Council
Pay attention to Urdu, legislators urge govt
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 31
Legislators cutting across the party lines in the Legislative Council today urged the state government to pay attention to Urdu, which is the official language of the state.

NC legislator Javaid Ahmad Rana raised the issue during Question Hour in the House. He asked the government whether Urdu was the official language of the state. What was its status in the official work and correspondences in courts.

Thereafter, eight more legislators spoke in the support of Javaid and grilled Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Nasir Aslam Wani over the issue. Javaid said, “We can’t see the system collapsing. The official work in all police stations is done in Urdu, but hardly any SHO knows the language. The same is the condition with tehsildars. No private school has Urdu as subject in its curriculum. Even there is no Urdu Academy in our state”.

Wani said, “As per the Section 145 of the Constitution of the state, the official language of the state shall be Urdu, and English, unless the Legislature by a law otherwise provides, continue to be used for all official purposes”.

He added, “Various government institutions, including the judiciary, are maintaining the official records partly in Urdu and partly in English. The state government is also trying to appoint Urdu teachers in the state, particularly in the Jammu region”.

Dissatisfied with the minister’s reply, the legislators urged the acting chairman of the House, Arvinder Singh Micky, to allow them a debate over the issue. Rana said, “Is there a plan for special recruitment of Urdu teachers?”

Meanwhile, Aga Syed Ahmad Rizvi of the NC said, “We don’t even get the reply to our questions in Urdu in the House”. Mohammad Rafiq Shah of the Panthers party also asked a supplementary question saying, “This issue is related to our identity and the government should pay attention towards it”. “Has the stat government any plan to make a law in this regard,” Mohammad Rashid Qureshi of the NC said. Murtaza Ahmad Khan of the PDP also asked the same question.

Replying to the members’ questions, the minister said the government was making all efforts in this regard. He added that, “First, we should use Urdu, as it was our base. Whenever we speak two sentences, we use one or two words of English. Our children are also learning Hindi in schools. So first we should use Urdu to set an example for others to follow”.

On Urdu Academy, the minister said, “So far there is no proposal in this regard”.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar said, “Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has already written to the state government to use Urdu in official work and we are making efforts in this regard. But this can be done only when we prepare ourselves for it”.