Language row: Now, TN outfit gets RTI reply in Hindi from central ministry

The New Indian Express: THANJAVUR: Saturday, 05 September 2020.

The coordinator of the Cauvery Rights Retrieval Committee and Tamil nationalist leader P Maniyarasan took strong exception to the reply in Hindi.

The Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Department of Water Resources has replied in Hindi to an RTI query by the Cauvery Rights Retrieval Committee (CRRC).

The coordinator of the committee and Tamil nationalist leader P Maniyarasan took strong exception to the reply in Hindi.

The outfit had sought to know the quantum of water released by Karnataka.

He said he had sent a letter with eight questions under the Right to Information Act (RTI) on whether the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) have been constituted according to the orders of the Supreme Court and whether Karnataka had released the prescribed quantum of water for June-July.

The two replies received for the queries are in Hindi, he said, adding in Tamil Nadu, Hindi is neither the medium of instructions nor the official language of the state. In Tamil Nadu, Tamil and English are the official languages. As per the amendments made to the Official languages Act 1963, English continues to be the language of correspondence between the Union and State governments.

Replying in Hindi to the RTI query sent from Tamil Nadu is against the law. This is against the provisions of the Constitution, Indian Official Languages Act, and Tamil Nadu Official Languages Act. Answering a question concerning the livelihood of crores of people in a language not known by the applicant is highly condemnable. The Union Government led by Narendra Modi has been imposing Hindi on the state in a planned manner, he said.

Recently, some participants from Tamil Nadu were told to leave a webinar which was conducted in Hindi by the Ayush Ministry. And before that, Maniyarasan said, MP Kanimozhi was insulted by a CISF personnel at an airport for not knowing Hindi.

Maniyarasan said he had sent a protest letter to Jal Sakti Ministry and also urged the State Government to take up issues of Hindi imposition with the Union government.