Telangana declares Urdu as 2nd Official Language

Hyderabad : The Telangana State Legislative Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed the Telangana Official Languages (Amendment) Bill-2017 declaring Urdu as the 2nd official language of the State.

The Bill was moved by Roads and Buildings Minister Tummala Nageshwara Rao on behalf of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The Bill was supported by all the opposition parties - Congress, BJP, TDP and CPI (M),

Congress MLA T. Jeevan Reddy while supporting the Bill questioned the State Government on retrenchment of Urdu Academy employees and closing of 45 Urdu Computer Centers. He said that the Bill was not new and a similar Bill was passed in the year 1966 declaring Urdu as Second official language in 9 old districts of Telangana except Khammam. Deputy Chief Minister (Revenue) Mahmood Ali intervened and said that 177 Urdu Academy's contract and outsourcing employees were not removed. However, they have been accommodated in the Minorities Finance Corporation. He said there would be no retrenchment and remaining employees too would be accommodated. He also denied that the Urdu Computer Centres were close and claimed that they were being upgraded. He said the upgradation of 12 Centres has been completed.

BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy supported the Bill and said that only erstwhile Khammam district has been now included for the implementation of Urdu as Second official language. He expressed doubts on its implementation. On this, the Deputy CM said after the formation of Telangana, the number of districts has gone up to 31. Therefore, an amendment was necessitated. He said that the Chief Minister has also announced appointing Urdu translators right from the Chief Minister's Peshi to District Collectors, Director General of Police office to District Superintendent of Police.

Sandra Venkat Veeraiah of TDP and Sunnam Rajaiah of CPI(M) also supported the Bill.

Minister Nageshwara Rao thanked the members for extending their support to the Bill. He said there was substantial Urdu speaking population spread across 31 districts of the State. He said the percentage of Urdu speaking population has increased to 12.69 per cent of the total population. Keeping this in view, the government has decided to declare Urdu language as the Second Official Language in the entire State by amending Section 2 of the Official Languages Act, 1966.

Amendment Bill on creating separate Lok Ayukta for Telangana passes

The Assembly has also passed the Telangana Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill - 2017 moved by the Minister for Roads and Building on behalf of the Chief Minister for creating separate Lokayuktra for Telangana State. So far, Lokayukta was under Schedule 10 of the AP Bifurcation Act and the Telangana state has adopted all the provisions and rules of Andhra Pradesh Lokayukta Act - 1983.

The House has also passed the Amended Bill for the Telangana Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act 1987, moved by Endowment Minister A. Indra Karan Reddy. This new amended Bill will give powers to the Commission of Endowment to disburse salaries and other emoluments to all Archakas, office holders and servants of Hindu Religious Institutions