All contents to be available in English, Hindi, Urdu
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 26: For the first time, the languages interface of the website of the General Administration Department of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is going to be launched shortly as translation work has been completed with the active support of the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
Moreover, a panel of officers is working out the modalities for use of official languages in the preparation of orders, notification and other important documents by other Government departments to achieve the mandate behind the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Act passed by the Parliament in the month of September 2020.
In Section 3 of the Act, it has been mentioned that with effect from such date as the Administrator (Lieutenant Governor) may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint in this behalf, the Kashmiri, Dogri, Urdu, Hindi and English languages shall be the official languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of the Union Territory.
It has also been mentioned that English language may continue to be used for those administrative and legislative purposes in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for which it was being used before the commencement of the Act.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Official Language Section, which was created in the General Administration Department in the month of December 2020, with the active assistance of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages has completed the translation of Statutory Orders, Government Orders and other important documents of the General Administration Department as desired by the authorities concerned into Hindi and Urdu languages.
Moreover, Information Technology Department has developed Hindi and Urdu interface of the website of the General Administration Department and at present trials are going on under the close supervision of Dr Piyush Singla, Administrative Secretary of the GAD, sources said while disclosing that for the first time the languages interface of the GAD website is going to be launched shortly.
With the launch of new interface of the website the contents will be available in English, Hindi and Urdu languages. Moreover, a cell created in the General Administration Department both in Civil Secretariat Jammu and Srinagar will ensure that in future all the Statutory Orders, Government Orders, Notifications and other important documents are made available in these three languages on the website simultaneously.
The General Administration Department has already started mentioning on the bottom of all the orders that Hindi and Urdu version shall follow. There will be button on the top of the website mentioning English, Hindi and Urdu and on clicking the same the people will be able to get the copy of the Government order or other documents available on the website in any of these three languages.
As far as other Government departments are concerned, a committee of officers headed by Secretary to the Government, Culture Department and comprising of Secretary, J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, representatives of Finance Department, Skill Development Department, Higher Education Department, School Education Department and General Administration Department, is working out the modalities and identifying the areas where the official languages can be notified for use in official purposes.
The committee has been assigned the task of analyzing the overall implications of the proposal, analyzing the capacity building requirement for adaption of the official languages, working out requirement of resources (physical and financial) for establishment of set-up and to analyze the competence of the available resources in view of diverse geographical and linguistic diversities.
“The members of the committee are of the opinion that capacity building of existing manpower and deployment of translators in required number will take quite long time as such initially efforts should be made to issue key Government orders in official languages apart from English by majority of the departments by making some internal arrangements like deployment of translators”, sources said.
“Some members are also of the opinion that departments should be selected in phased manner for issuance of Government orders in official languages”, they further said.
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