Naidu wants Hindi promotion panel to meet twice a yr

New Delhi: Expressing concern over the Hindi Salahkar Samiti of Rajya Sabha not meeting for the last three and half year, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday directed that two meetings of this important committee should be held every year henceforth, mandatorily. Naidu presided over the meeting of the committee, meant for promotion of the use of Hindi in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on Tuesday.

After a detailed review of the implementation of the Official Language Policy in the Secretariat, the members of the committee while noting the substantial use of Hindi in the Secretariat stressed on the need for total compliance with the provisions in this regard.

According to an official communiqué, Naidu urged the members of Rajya Sabha, hailing from non-Hindi speaking areas, to speak in Hindi if they chose to do so without the fear of grammatical mistakes.

Referring to his own experience, Naidu recalled that he did not know Hindi when he first came to Delhi but soon picked up the language by speaking without any hesitation, it said. "King can do no wrong. You are Members of Parliament and can speak freely without the fear of committing mistakes," Naidu said at the meeting.

Naidu said that the best way of propagating Hindi is encouraging its use instead of forcing others to adopt it. "Knowing different languages is advantageous and urged North Indians to learn any South Indian language of their choice as it would promote national unity and integration," Naidu said.

Naidu also underscored the need to be proficient in mother tongue first as it would enable learning other languages easily.

It's worth mentioning that last meeting of the Hindi Salahkar Samiti of Rajya Sabha was held in December 2014. Soon after assuming the office of Chairman, Naidu reconstituted the committee and convened its first meeting on Tuesday.

Besides Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, Rajya Sabha Members who attended the meeting of the Committee include Satyanarayan Jatiya, Harivansh, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, K Keshav Rao, Prabhat Jha, Ravi Prakash Verma, Prasanna Acharya and Jharna Das Baid.