Historical abrogation of Article 370 and subsequent time to time orders by GoI to integrate UT of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of India is an ongoing process and recent efforts to integrate the languages interface of the website of the General Administration Department of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with the active support of the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages is another milestone achievement by LG administration. All said and done it is really a herculean task for the Official Language Section, specifically created in the GAD since the month of December 2020, to complete the translation of Statutory Orders, Government Orders and other important documents of the General Administration Department as required to be translated into Hindi and Urdu languages. Information Technology Department has already developed Hindi and Urdu interface of the website of the General Administration Department and at present trials are going with GAD already mentioning on the bottom of all the orders that Hindi and Urdu version shall follow. Once completed, all translated orders or other documents will be available to public just a click away. It is important to mention that the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Act was passed by the Parliament in the month of September 2020 whereby 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 and Section 3 of the Act empowered the Administrator (Lieutenant Governor) to effect from such date by notification in the official gazette and 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. For implementing the same in other concerned Government departments, a committee of officers headed by Secretary to the Government, Culture Department along with Secretary, J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, officials of Finance, Skill Development, Higher Education, School Education and General Administration Department has been formed to work out the modalities and identifying the areas where the official languages can be notified for use in official purposes immediately or in phased manner. Keeping in view the diverse geographical and linguistic diversification of Jammu and Kashmir it is indeed a mammoth task to balance aspirations of everyone more so important is analyzing the overall implications of the proposal, capacity building requirement, working out requirement of resources and financial implications of implementation and how to utilise present resources effectively. Capacity building of existing manpower and deployment of translators in required number will take quite long time and financial burden too has to be taken into account.
GoI is trying to remove alleged discrimination of one particular region of Jammu and Kashmir and as such has started implementation of languages act in phased manner but it remains to be seen how Dogri and Kashmiri also get used in official orders and other documents. Earlier also, notification for Urdu faculty in educational institutes where not a single student has opted for Urdu created much uproar. Denial of DD Dogri Channel and moving out local DD station equipment to Himachal recently has already been resented and taken seriously by public. All said and done funambulism is not an easy task and administration is trying its best to do the same. In this June itself LG has approved the Post-Graduate courses in Dogri and Hindi under the School of Languages and Literature at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University. Intentions are clear and right and one hopes by taking all regions onboard Official Languages Act gets implemented in letter and spirit in a set time frame.
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