‘Delink knowledge of official language to govt recruitment process’

In order to help the linguistic minorities get integrated into economic mainstream without losing their language,the office of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities (CLM),has recommended that there should be no prerequisite for them to know the state’s official language for recruitment to state services.

Linguistic minorities are people who speak a language other than the official language of the state and constitute 15 per cent or more of the population in a particular area of that state. (For instance,in Uttar Pradesh,Hindi is the official language and Bengali,apart from Punjabi,is a linguistic minority. In West Bengal,however,it is the other way round. A large number of tribal languages in various states also constitute linguistic minorities.)

The recommendation,which is part of the CLM’s latest report (covering a period from June 2008 to June 2010) tabled in both Houses in the Monsoon session of the Parliament,says: “It is imperative that while appearing for recruitment tests,the linguistic minorities do not face discrimination on account of domiciliary restrictions or on prior knowledge of the regional/official language.”