The state government has decided to give awards for the best implementation of Telugu as official language in every aspect of administration.
The Official Language Commission headed by Mandali Buddha Prasad had finalised the list of awardees and the awards will be presented on the occasion of the International Mother Tongue Day to be observed on Feb 21 with an official function at Rabindra Bharathi.
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy will be the chief guest at the programme, to be presided over by Buddha Prasad. High Court judge and AP Judicial Academy chairman justice NV Ramana, minister for tourism and culture V Vasanta Kumar, minister for secondary education K Parthasarathy, minister for primary education S Sailajanath and chief secretary Minnie Mathew will be guests of honour on the occasion.
Briefing mediapersons, Prasad said UNESCO had made suggestions while declaring Feb 21 as the International Day of Mother Tongue. They include education in one’s mother tongue, multi-lingual education and inclusion of culture and tradition in school syllabus, implementation of mother tongue as official language in administration and encouragement for using mother tongue is every sphere of activity, including science and technology. “AP government is already implementing all suggestions. The year has been declared Telugu Language and Culture Year by Kiran Reddy at the recent World Telugu Conference. Further, he had made it mandatory to learn Telugu in schools,” Prasad said.
Efforts are also on for developing Telugu SMS service and technical dictionary, he added.