The Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai on September 16th clarified that the Central Government has no proposal to amend the Official Languages Act to include Scheduled languages other than Hindi and English as its official languages as suggested by the Supreme Court.
The Minister clarified this in a written reply in Rajya Sabha to the unstarred question posed by Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) founder and Member of Parliament (MP) Vaiko.
When asked how the people in the South and the Northeast, especially villagers could understand the communications, ruled and regulations published by the government, Rai stated, “There is the provision of three language formulae Hindi, English and Regional Language) as per point No. 3 of Official Language Resolution, 1968 which have been prepared in consultation with the State Governments. The order of usage of languages in the name-boards/notice-boards to be displayed for the information of the public by Central Government Offices which are located in non-Hindi speaking areas is to be in order of (1) Regional Language, (2) Hindi, (3) English.”
The monsoon session of the Parliament began on September 14th, under the shadow of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
