No policy to notify 22 languages as Official Languages mentioned in Constitution: MoS

Union Government does not have any policy proposal to notify all the 22 Languages of Schedule VIII of the Constitution as Official Languages.

New Delhi: Minister of State (Ministry of Home Affairs) Nityanand Rai clarified in the Rajya Sabha that the Union Government does not have any policy proposal to notify all the 22 Languages of Schedule VIII of the Constitution as Official Languages.

To an unstarred question by Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, MoS Nityanand Rai stated that Article 343 of the Constitution provides for the official language of the Union. “No. Article 343 of the Constitution of India provides for the official language of the Union,” he said in a written reply.

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Former Minister of Health and Family Welfare of India Anbumani Ramadoss had asked in the House “whether the Union Government has any policy proposal to notify all the 22 Languages of Schedule VIII of India Constitution as Official Languages”.

The former Health Minister also asked for the detalls and reasons for the same, if that is the case. He also asked “whether the Union Government has policy proposal to implement the Use of Tamil Language In all the Central Government Institutions and CPSUs Including nationalized Banks that are operational In Tamil Nadu In their official & public communications and If so, the detalls thereof?” Article 343 in the Constitution states that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. It also states that the Parliament may by law provide for the use of the English language, or the Devanagari form of numerals, for such purposes as may be specified in the law.