Now, Telugu is compulsory for all state government employees. They must sign the attendance register in Telugu and apply for leave only in Telugu. A meeting chaired by chief secretary Minnie Mathew took a decision to this effect on Monday. Relevant orders are expected to be issued in a couple of days. The meeting was attended by Official Language Commission (OLC) chairman Mandali Buddha Prasad.
There are around 10 lakh state government employees. Apart from signing the attendance register and applying for leave in Telugu, they should also give all other applications like cash advance letters in Telugu. Further, all the government departments which interact with the public on a day-to-day basis should do so only in Telugu.
The meeting also decided to organise the Official Language Day on May 14 every year, on the lines of Raj Bhasha Day for Hindi.This is to mark the Official Language Act, which came into force in the state on May 14, Buddha Prasad said. The International Mother Language Day is observed on February 21.
Implementation of Telugu in government offices would be reviewed every three months and awareness programmes would be conducted once in six months, Buddha Prasad said. The OLC would tie up with the IT Department to provide Telugu software to all government employees. “Initially, the applications used by public will be supplied in both Telugu and English,” Buddha Prasad said.