According to the official notification issued by the political department of the state on the direction of Governor Laxmi Prasad Acharya, issuance of all government notifications, office memoranda, acts, rules, regulations, scheme guidelines, transfer and posting orders shall be both in English and Assamese.
On the first day of Assamese new year, the Assamese language has been made mandatory for all official work in Assam, according to an official notification issued in this regard on Monday. It will come into effect from Tuesday, the first day of the Assamese New Year.
On April 4, the decision was taken at the cabinet meeting of the council of ministers, presided by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on April 4.
“Beginning this Bohag (first month of Assamese calendar), Assamese will be the compulsory official language for all government notifications, order, Acts, etc across Assam. In the districts of Barak Valley and BTR (Bodoland Territorial Region), Bengali and Bodo languages will be used respectively,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X.
According to the official notification issued by the political department of the state on the direction of Governor Laxmi Prasad Acharya, issuance of all government notifications, office memoranda, acts, rules, regulations, scheme guidelines, transfer and posting orders shall be both in English and Assamese.
In the districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi in the Barak Valley, Bengali will be used in addition to English for official purposes, said the notification. Similarly, in Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, Udalguri and Tamulpur under the BTR, Bodo language will be used in addition to English for official purposes, it said.
“The Assamese language shall be used compulsorily in all official works. Issuance of all government notifications, office memoranda, Acts, rules, regulations, scheme guidelines, transfer and posting orders shall be both in English and Assamese,” the notification said.
All notifications, orders, Acts, rules and regulations and guidelines issued by the central government shall be published by translating into Assamese language (Bodo and Bengali, wherever applicable) within 30 days of receipt by the department concerned.
The development in Assam came amid the three-language row in Tamil Nadu where Chief Minister MK Stalin for months have condemned the central government over the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Under NEP 2020, all states must teach three languages in school - with Hindi being the third language. Tamil Nadu have strongly objected to this "imposition" of the Hindi language. According to Stalin, the forced adoption of NEP 2020 and the Hindi language has "swallowed" 25 north Indian languages.
The Tamil Nadu CM further stated that the notion of Hindu being a "unifying language" is a deliberate attempt to erase linguistic diversity.
"More than 25 north Indian native languages have been destroyed by the invasion of hegemonic Hindi-Sanskrit languages. The century-old Dravidian movement safeguarded Tamil and its culture because of the awareness it created and the various agitations," the ruling DMK chief said, adding that languages such Bhojpuri, Maithili, Awadhi, Braj, Bundeli, Garhwali, Kumaoni, Magahi, Marwari, Malvi, Chhattisgarhi, Santhali, Angika, Ho, Kharia, Khortha, Kurmali, Kurukh, and Mundari, are "gasping for survival."