By NNN-PTI,
Chandigarh : A bill making Punjabi the official language of Punjab was unanimously passed by the state Assembly, fulfilling a decades-old demand.
The measure – the Punjab Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2008 – paving the way for “comprehensive” use of Punjabi in the state administration, was approved by the Assembly yesterday.
Moving the Bill, Education and Language Minister Upinderjit Kaur said it was extremely important to monitor the implementation of status of Punjabi as the official language of the state by constituting state level and district level committees.
“Although Punjabi is a scheduled language under the Constitution, yet being language of the minority community, it needs regular, systematic and planned development at both the national and international level particularly in this era of modern information and communication technology,” she said.
Supporting the Bill, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar (Congress) said this decision should have been taken at least 20 to 30 years back.
“If we kept ignoring it, we will forget the Punjabi language,” he added.
He said Punjabi language must get priority in schools, colleges and other institutions.
The House also passed the learning of Punjabi and other languages bill 2008.
The bill will ensure that Punjabi is taught to all students studying in standards 1 to 10 as one of the compulsory subjects from the next academic session commencing from April 2009.