June 1, 2018
Kurukh, Kamtapuri, Rajbongshi, Kurmali get official language status
At the time when the Trinamool Congress Government has taken up different steps for the revival of endangered tribal languages, comes another welcome step.
With the Governor consenting to the West Bengal Official Language (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, Kamtapuri, Rajbongshi and Kurmali have become formally accepted as official State languages. Earlier, Kurukh had achieved the status through the West Bengal Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
The State Assembly had passed the former Bill on February 28 and the latter on February 8 of this year.
These languages would be used as official languages in the districts, sub-divisions, blocks or municipalities where the speaking population exceeds 10 per cent as a whole or part of the district, like sub-division or block.
It may be mentioned that Kurukh is spoken by the Oraon tribal community. There are around 17 lakh people, who speak the language in the districts of Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, South Dinajpur and North 24-Parganas.
Source: Millennium Post
