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Bengal

Kurukh, Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi & Kurmali to soon find official use

Kolkata: The day when Kurukh, Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi and Kurmali will be used for official purposes in the state, is not too far with the Governor giving his consent for the
same.
It was on February 8 that the West Bengal Official Language (Amendment) Bill was passed in the state Assembly,
to declare use of Kurukh language for official purposes in the state.
Again on February 28, the West Bengal Official Language (Second Amendment) Bill 2018 was also passed, to declare Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi and Kurmali languages as "official languages in the districts, sub-divisions, blocks or municipalities…where the Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi and Kurmali speaking population exceeds 10 percent as a whole or part of the district like sub-division or block".
It may be recalled that the step of introducing Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi and Kurmali languages as official ones, was taken following recommendations of the expert committee headed by Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri.
After Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi gave the consent, the state Law department had issued a notice in this connection last month.
Following the notice of the Law department, the Information and Cultural Affairs department will be issuing another notification as per the set norms and from the day the notification is issued, the languages will be used as official ones.
Though the date of the notification is yet to be finalised, according to officials it would not take too long for the same.
It may be mentioned that Kurukh is spoken by the Oraon tribal community. There are around 17 lakh people, who speak the language in places including Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, South Dinajpur and North 24-Parganas. There are around 36.82 lakh Kurukh speaking people in the country.
Kurukh, Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi and Kurmali will be used as official languages, besides Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Santhali, Oriya and Punjabi.
This comes at the time when the Mamata Banerjee government has taken up different steps for the revival of endangered tribal languages. Moreover, the government has also ensured overall development of the tribal communities in the state.
It may be mentioned that hundreds of people will be benefitted, with the four languages being used for official purposes.

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