MANGALURU: Jai Tulunad, several other pro-Tulu organisations and supporters held a 24-hour Twitter campaign demanding Tulu to be declared as the state’s official language and include it in the eight schedule of the Constitution. They urged the elected representatives from Dakshina Kannada to raise the matter in the upcoming assembly session.
Sudarshan from Jai Tulunadu said the intention of the campaign is to urge the elected representatives from the district to speak up and raise the matter in the 10-day assembly session this month. Launched with the hashtag #TuluOfficialinKA_KL, #SpeakUpForTulu, the campaign already got over 1 lakh tweets by Sunday evening.
“Our demand is to declare Tulu as the state’s official language and to give first preference to the Tuluvas in industrial companies in the district. Under the New Education Policy (NEP), Tulu language should be included instead of making Kannada mandatory.
Also, Tulu is taught as the third language in the schools but the salaries of the teachers are provided by Tulu Sahitya Academy. In addition, the government should form Tulu Development Board to promote Tulu and the culture. Sunil Kumar, who is from the coast, is the minister of Kannada and Culture department. Hence, we hope that our demands are fulfilled soon,” he said.