Government today ordered establishment of official language section in General Administration Department to translate official orders and important documents in J&K.
As per the order issued here, this section will be responsible for translating important statutory orders, government orders and other important Government documents, as may be desired by the authorities into four other official languages of Union Territory i.e., Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri and Urdu.
“Developing Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri and Urdu interface of the official website of GAD in-collaboration with the Information Technology Department, which shall provide all possible assistance in terms of hardware, software and technical guidance,” reads an order issued by Commissioner Secretary, GAD, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi.
It is further ordered that the above posts and positions shall be filled on deputation basis from the appropriate staff of the Higher Education Department, Information Department and the erstwhile J&K Legislative Council till permanent arrangements are put in place.
Recently, the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020 was passed in the Parliament of India and accordingly, the Government notified inclusion of Kashmiri, Dogri, and Hindi language in the list of official languages of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in-addition to Urdu and English languages.
The notification was issued following the assent of the President of India Ram NathKovind September 26, 2020. Prior to August 5, 2019, J&K had Urdu language as the only official language of the erstwhile State.
Even as Hindi, Dogri and Kashmiri languages were included as official languages of J&K with the passing of J&K Official Languages Bill, 2020, the Sikh community and Punjab and Punjabi speaking people started agitation in resentment for not including Punjabi language as one of the official languages of the Union Territory.