BENGALURU: The Karnataka government is keen on declaring Tulu as the additional official language, Kannada and Culture Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi said. A meeting will soon be chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to discuss the proposal, he said.
“We have written a letter to West Bengal which has made some provision for other languages as additional official state language. A team from Karnataka visited Andhra Pradesh, which has made Urdu the second state language. We will call for a meeting, and invite all MLAs from the Tulu speaking region,’’ he said.
The minister was replying to Puttur MLA Ashok Kumar Rai who had earlier said Tulu has over 3,000 years of history, has a script and is also recognised by Google for translation. In Germany and France, there is provision to study Tulu. Universities allow writing of exams in Tulu medium. “In some states, there are three to four official languages. Every legislative session, I ask the same question about making Tulu the second official language of the state. There are no financial implications, so when will this be implemented?’’ he questioned.