It is official. Malayalam will be the official language of communication in all departments in the state from November 1. The common man has reason to cheer as lack of knowledge in English will not be a hindrance in his dealings with the government machinery.
A year-long programme has been chalked out by the Official Language Department to make mother tongue the administrative language. Malayalam fonts will be developed and provided for the computers of government departments for sending out circulars and other communications in Malayalam.
Official language secretary K Suresh Kumar said that the department heads have been asked to prepare all reports in Malayalam. The decision was taken on the basis of a report submitted by the Assembly sub-committee on official language headed by Palode Ravi submitting to the government to use Malayalam by all government departments.
Civil service officials from other states heading several departments too have to follow the rule. According to Suresh Kumar, it is mandatory for all officials to know the local language.
The common man who has to approach the government offices for various needs can now have all the correspondence in Malayalam. However, communications to the High Court and Central Government offices will continue to be in English”, Suresh Kumar said. K Sivakumar, the official language expert at the department, said that steps have been initiated to convert all the details of the government websites in Malayalam. By the end of October next year, the recommendations of the Assembly sub-committee could be implemented. “The slogan, mother tongue is the official language, will be stamped on all the government communiques. The official language implementation will also be reviewed at the internal audit of all the departments and a report will be submitted regularly to the government”, Sivakumar said.
Training will be given to all the employees through the IMG centres in Thiruvananthapuam, Kochi and Kozhikode. For letters prepared in English, the draft should be in Malayalam. A booklet on the translation of English technical words had already been prepared and given to the departments. This will enable the preparation of Malayalam documents much easier.