voice to the people

Raipur, Nov 27: Chhattisgarh’s BJP government today introduced an amendment bill to give the local dialect “Chhattisgarhi” a status of the state’s official language.

“The bill is aimed at fulfilling the aspirations of the masses by giving Chhattisgarhi dialect the status of the official language,” said the state’s culture minister, Brijmohan Agrawal, while tabling the Chhattisgarhi Rajbhasa (Amendment) Bill 2007, in the House today.

Earlier, chief minister Raman Singh had made the announcement at Rajyotsav-2007 on the occasion of Chhattisgarh’s Foundation day on November 1, 2007 to confer official language status on the dialect.

With the government introducing the Bill in the Vidhan Sabha, members in the House today started using the language in the proceedings of the House. Speaker Prem Prakash Pandey said the Section 235 of the rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha has been relaxed to enable the members to speak in Chhattisgarhi while participating in the proceedings.

“The rules were relaxed anticipating that the House would pass the bill and it would become an act to use Chhattisgarh as an official language,” he added.

The Assembly secretariat has also made elaborate arrangements to translate the debate and discussions in the House from Hindi to Chhattisgarhi and vice-versa by engaging a team of 20 translators and installing double band earphone systems.

Congress — the Opposition party — raised protests over the form of the bill, which, its members felt did “no justice” to the local dialect.

Former minister of the state’s parliamentary affairs and senior Congress member Ravindra Choubey said the amendment bill mentioned Chhattisgarhi as an additional language along with Hindi.

Deputy Leader of Opposition Bhupesh Baghel, while welcoming the move, urged the government to introduce a “full-fledged” bill.