New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh Wednesday said the Cabinet’s approval to a bill that adds Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi as official languages in Jammu and Kashmir will end the grievances of discrimination on the basis of language.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the bill under which Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi, apart from the existing Urdu and English, will be the official languages in Jammu and Kashmir.
It was an anomaly that the three languages — Dogri, Hindi and Kashmiri — which are spoken by nearly 70 per cent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir were not approved for use in official business.
“The Cabinet decision today will not only bring ease of governance, but also ease of citizen participation in governance in the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Minister of State for Personnel said.
He said this will remove the feeling of alienation among different communities and address the grievances of discrimination on the basis of language.
The minister said the government has accepted the long-pending demand of the region for the inclusion of Dogri, Hindi and Kashmiri as officials languages in J-K.
“It is not only a fulfilment of a long-pending public demand of the region but also in keeping with the spirit of equality which was ushered in after August 5 last year (when provisions of Article 370 were repealed),” said Singh, who is also the Lok Sabha member from J-K’s Udhampur constituency.
Addressing a press briefing, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020 will be introduced in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.
