UDUPI: Udupi MLA K Raghupathi Bhat on Monday said that all MLAs from Dakshina Kannada district and southern parts of Udupi district will speak in Tulu on the floor of the legislature during the next winter session.
He said that such a possibility did exist in the past too, but as there was a dearth of stenographers who knew Tulu in the House, the Speaker had requested the MLAs to speak in Kannada instead of Tulu. However, the Speaker has assured the MLAs that an arrangement will be made in future to appoint Tulu-speaking stenographers to transcribe the speech, the Udupi MLA further said.
"Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri has a positive approach with regard to Tulu as an official language," Bhat said.Tulu font The Udupi MLA was speaking to reporters after the launch of Tulu font, 'Mandara', developed by Prahlad Tantry. Prahlad has made an independent effort to develop the font, which is adaptable to computers.
The Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy is expected to seek the help of the State Government to release Mandara font in a universally acceptable Unicode platform. Bhat, while stressing on reviving the Tulu script, said it was being used extensively earlier. But nowadays, Tulu is only spoken and not written. During the time of 13th century philosopher Madhwacharya, Tulu script was vastly used by people, he added.
To prove his point, the MLA said the pontiffs of Udupi's Ashta Mutts put their signature in Tulu script even today. Bhat said that Tulu script might have been sidelined after the region came under the Madras Presidency administration in British-era India. Numerous religious texts are in Tulu script and the government should promote the language and the script by getting students to learn at school level in the region, Bhat said.