SRINAGAR, SEP 22: The Jammu and Kashmir Police have taken a significant step towards the promotion and implementation of the Hindi language across its offices in the Jammu division of the Union Territory. In this endeavour, the police department has constituted a dedicated 20-member Hindi promotion cell.
According to an order dated September 21, issued by Additional Director General of Police, Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh, the Hindi promotion cell will play a pivotal role in ensuring the effective implementation of the Hindi language in official communications, as per directives from the police headquarters. To oversee and coordinate these efforts, a Staff Officer to the ADGP, Jammu zone, will serve as the nodal officer for the cell.
The newly formed cell comprises a diverse team, including officers and personnel from various ranks within the police force. Among its members are Inspectors Rakesh Kumar and Shakti Koul, Sub-Inspectors Bharat Rattan and Ravinder Kumar, as well as Assistant Sub-Inspectors Ganesh Gutt, Daleep Singh, Bunty Kumar, and Dilbagh Singh. Head Constables Krishan Lal, Arun Singh, Ram Kumar, and Rajinder Kumar also form part of the team, along with Selection Grade Constables Ajay Kumar, Runkman Vaid, and Nitan Sharma, and Constables Narinder Sukha, Rajan Sharma, and Abhishek Bassan, along with Rajesh Vaid.
This move towards Hindi language promotion comes in the wake of significant changes to the official languages of Jammu and Kashmir. Before the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the region conducted all its official work in Urdu and English, the two official languages.
In 2020, a bill was passed that expanded the list of official languages to include Dogri, Kashmiri, and Hindi. On September 22, 2020, the Lok Sabha introduced and passed the J&K Official Languages Bill, 2020, which aimed to establish Kashmiri, Dogri, and Hindi as the official languages of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This decision sparked debates, with Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference expressing concerns about the complexity that would arise from having five official languages. In response, Union Minister of State for Home, G Kishan Reddy, pointed out that while Urdu was the official language of Jammu and Kashmir, it was spoken by only 0.16 percent of the population, whereas Kashmiri was spoken by over 50 percent of the population and had not been granted official status until then.
