Question : VIOLATION OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

(a) whether the Government has received any report on violation of Official Language Act by various Ministries/Departments/Public Sector Undertakings/Banks etc;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken in this regard;

(c) whether the Government has issued any directive to all the Ministries, Departments, Public Sector Undertakings, Banks etc. to use official language Hindi in their respective departments and in all official correspondences;

(d) if so, the details thereof alongwith the steps taken to launch Hindi website of all the Ministries /Departments to promote Hindi; and

(e) the corrective measures taken by the Government to check violation of the Official Language Act in future?

MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI JITENDRA SINGH)

(a): Yes, Madam.

(b): Complaints regarding violation of the Official Languages Act by the Central Government Organisations are received in the Department of Official Language from time to time. These are forwarded to the administrative Heads of the concerned organizations with the request to take appropriate action and to send the compliance report.

(c): Yes, Madam. Suitable directions are issued from time to time to the Ministries, Departments, Offices and Organisation etc. of the Central Government to bring successive progress in the implementation of Official Language Policy of the Union. An Annual Programme is prepared every year by the Deptt. of Official Language for doing official work of the Union in Hindi, in which targets for various items are prescribed. The Secretary, Deptt. of Official Language vide D.O. letter written to the Secretaries of all the Ministries /Departments has emphasised on increasing the use of Hindi, making recruitment to the vacant posts of Hindi, cadre formation for the suitable avenues for promotions, bilingual Websites and the importance of the use of I.T. tools in Hindi.

(d): All the Ministries/Departments have been given suitable directions to prepare their websites in Hindi & English vide letters issued by Prime Minister’s Office and August 27, 1999 & Secretary, Official Language on September 22, 1999. Further, the Department of Official Language, while monitoring the quarterly progress Reports of Hindi, issues letters for immediate action to those Ministries/Departments, who could not achieve the targets.

(e): As per provision of Rule-12 of the Official Languages Rules, 1976, the responsibility of compliance of the provision of Official Languages Act, Official Languages Rules and Orders relating to the official language Policy, has been entrusted to the administrative Heads of every office of the Central Government. There exist a strong system in the department of official language for the monitoring the violations of the official languages act etc. A close monitoring is kept on it in the meetings of Hindi Advisory Committee, Central Official Language Implementation Committee & Town Official Language implementation Committee. Apart from it, inspections are carried out from time to time by the Committee of parliament on Official Language & Official Language Officers and wherever the instances of violation are found, they are asked to take steps for corrective action. The number of town Official Language Implementation Committee is being increased for further strengthening this system at regional levels.