Hindi not compulsory in Namma Metro, State tells Centre
- Namma Metro is not a Central Government undertaking and hence no need for Hindi.
- State Government had written to Centre stating this one year ago.
- The then Chief Secretary Aravinda Jadhav had written a letter on 2016 July 3.
FollowIt has come to knowledge that the State government had written to Central government one year ago that Hindi was not compulsory in Namma Metro as it runs only in the State and that Namma Metro is not a Central government public sector undertaking (PSU). A letter stating that since the Metro trains run only inside the State and the profit and loss are borne by the State Government, it is not compulsory to have Hindi in Metro was written by the then Chief Secretary Aravinda Jadhav to the Union Urban Development Department secretary on July 3, 2016. A copy of the letter is with Kannada Prabha in which he had also explained clearly why Hindi was not compulsory in Metro.
The Namma Metro is a joint collaboration of Central government, State government and BMRCL. It does not state specifically that all rules and regulations of the Central government necessarily apply to Metro. Secondly, since State and Central partnership in Metro is 50:50, BMRCL cannot be considered as a Central Government PSU. Third, the State government has majority stakes by giving the land, bear the maintenance, taking full responsibility for profit and loss. The operational loss is also borne by the State. Metro operates within the Bengaluru City. It is a public transport system for Bengaluru and does not operate under Central Government. Since BMRCL is not a Central PSU, the language policy regulations governing PSUs does not apply to BMRCL. Hence Jadhav had stated that BMRCL should be kept out of three-language policy of the Central government.
The letter was written under the circumstance a year ago when an officer from the Central Government Official Language Department had visited the BMRCL office and had stated that the official language Act would apply to the Metro. He had said that since Centre has a stake in Metro, all name boards, and Metro trains should have Hindi also. Responding to this Jadhav had written the letter, reports Kannada Prabha.
Â
Â
