Move to amend Official Language act

HYDERABAD: The State Government has proposed to amend the A.P. Official Language Act, 1966, by deleting a section which runs contrary to a provision allowing exclusive use of Telugu as official language in the entire State.

The amendment seeks to delete section 4 which states "continuance of English language for certain official purposes of the State and for use in the legislature; until the State Government otherwise directs by a notification", a press release of the Official Language Commission Chairman, A.B.K. Prasad, said.

He said Sec. 4 enabled the use of English in the State and legislature although the A.P. Act 16 of 1964 which allowed continuance of English in the legislature had been repealed earlier. This showed that Sec. 4 was clearly contradictory to Sec. 2.

This decision was taken after a meeting that the Chairman had with the Secretary, Law, G. V. Sitapathi, and officials from the general administration department, the legislature and the commission.

The Member of Parliament, Asaduddin Owaisi has taken objection to the proposal reportedly made by Mr. A.B.K. Prasad, preferring Telugu medium students to others for recruitment in Government services.

In a statement issued here today, Mr. Owaisi also urged the Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to reject the proposal made by Mr. Prasad to make Sanskrit as the second official language.

The MIM MP said that Mr. Prasad was ignorant of clause 7 of the Official Language Act, 1966 and GO No. 472, which envisaged Urdu as a recruitment language. "As per the Act, Urdu shall also be a qualification for recruitment to ministerial and judicial ministerial services," he said.

Courtesy: The Hindu