Karnataka open to making Tulu second additional official language: Minister
Bengaluru (PTI): Minister Shivraj Tangadagi on Wednesday told the Legislative Assembly that the Karnataka government is in favour of declaring Tulu as the state’s second additional official language.
He said the government is studying the measures adopted by West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, both of which have additional official languages.
The minister was responding to a question by Puttur Congress MLA Ashok Kumar Rai during Question Hour.
Tulu is predominantly spoken in the coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, and legislators across party lines from these regions, including Speaker U T Khader, have been demanding that the government declare it as the state’s second additional official language.
At present, Kannada is the state’s only official language, while English is also used for official purposes as an additional language.
"I am continuously following it up. We have written to West Bengal and sent a committee of officials to Andhra Pradesh, where Urdu was recently declared the second official language. The committee has gathered information and returned, but is yet to submit its report," Tangadagi said.
He added that once the report is submitted, a meeting involving the Speaker, district in-charge ministers, and legislators from Tulu-speaking districts will be convened with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. "I want to assure you that we are in favour of this," he said.
Earlier, noting that several states have two or three additional official languages, Rai demanded that Tulu be declared an official language at the earliest, stating that it would not impose any financial burden on the government.
"Tulu has a history of 3,000 years, has its own script, and is included in Google Translate. The language is being researched in Germany and France, and universities have allowed examinations in Tulu," Rai said, adding that this was a unanimous demand of 13 legislators from Tulu-speaking Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, with no opposition.
Saying it had been a long-standing demand, Rai added that a Cabinet meeting was likely to be held in Mangaluru in the coming days and urged that a decision be announced there.
BJP MLA Vedavyas Kamath also demanded early action to declare Tulu an official language. He even spoke in Tulu in the House with Speaker U T Khader, who hails from a Tulu-dominant region and speaks the language fluently.
Kamath said a committee headed by educationist Mohan Alva, constituted by the previous BJP government to examine the issue, had studied the matter in detail and compiled all relevant information.
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Domestic help held for stealing cash, jewellery from US couple's house in B'luru
Bengaluru (PTI): A 29 year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing cash along gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 1 crore from the house of a US couple here, police said on Wednesday.
He was employed as a domestic worker at their house.
Police managed to nab the accused identified as Chandan Roul, a native of West Bengal, they said. The entire stolen property was also recovered intact, police said.
The matter came to light on January 21 when the residents of the villa at Kodihalli, a husband-wife duo who originally hail from Texas, US and are working in Bengaluru filed a complaint at J B Nagar police station, they added.
According to police, the complainant alleged that when they returned home in the evening after work, they found that the gold and diamond jewellery kept in the locker of the bedroom cupboard had been stolen.
In the complaint, they also expressed suspicion about the domestic help who had been working in their house for the past six months.
"During the probe, our team examined the case from various angles and, within a few hours of the incident, we detained the domestic help near the villa where the complainant resides. During interrogation, the accused confessed to having committed the theft," a senior police officer said.
The accused further stated that he had kept the stolen gold and diamond jewellery at his residence in Sudhamanagar, he said.
Based on the information provided by him, on the same day, the police team seized 176 grams of gold and diamond jewellery and Rs 39,000 in cash from his residence. The total value of the seized property is Rs one crore, he added.
