Calcutta, May 26: Mamata Banerjee today granted second language status to a host of tongues, including Urdu and Hindi, in areas where more than 10 per cent of the population spoke any of them, fulfilling a promise she had made before the elections.

“We have decided that Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Oriya, Santhali and Gurmukhi will be the second language in areas where the population speaking any of these languages is above 10 per cent. These people can carry out their official work in their own language,” the chief minister told reporters at Writers’.

These will be considered second languages in offices and educational institutes. Mamata, however, did not specify how the geographical limits would be worked out.

“Till now, only religious minorities were recognised but linguistic minorities were not given any recognition. Many Hindi-speaking people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh live in Bengal. In some areas, their population is nearly 30 per cent,” she added.