Rajya Sabha passes Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020

Rajya Sabha passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020 on Wednesday through voice vote.

Rajya Sabha passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020 on Wednesday through voice vote. It will include Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi in the list of official languages in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to the existing Urdu and English.

Lok Sabha had cleared the legislation on Tuesday.”It was a long-standing demand of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the language they speak should be included in the list of official languages,” Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said. He said that 74% of the people in the UT spoke Kashmiri and Dogri languages. He also added that according to the 2011 census, only 0.16 per cent population in Jammu and Kashmir spoke Urdu, while 2.3 per cent spoke Hindi.

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Reddy said the government would also take steps to encourage other local languages like Punjabi, Gurjari and Pahari in the region.