President of Udupi District Kannada Sahitya Parishat Ambatanaya Mudrady said on Thursday that there was need to create awareness about Kannada software.
He was presiding over a seminar on “Kannada software — present situation”, organised by the District Kannada Sahitya Parishat and E-Kavi International Organisation here.
Mr. Mudrady said that many writers in Kannada were not aware of the problems connected with Kannada software. Almost all Indian languages had their software. The Government should develop a Kannada software that would be free from all problems, as some users had said that there were some problems with the “Nudi” Kannada software being used in government offices, Mr. Mudrady said.
Founder of E-Kavi Organisation V.M. Kumaraswamy said that youth from rural areas were not getting jobs because Kannada was not the administrative language in the true sense. Kannada could become administrative language in a real sense only when a proper Kannada software was available. The Government should make Kannada compulsory in administration. But, this called for proper Kannada software in place. The Government should rescind its order making the “Nudi” software compulsory. There were many problems in this software, he said.
He urged the Government to withdraw the status it had accorded to the Karnataka Ganaka Parishat as the latter had misled the Government itself. The “Nudi” software should be put under open source. The source code of “Nudi” should be made available on the Internet. This would help all those interested to develop this software further, he said.
Although the Karnataka Ganaka Parishat had sold the “Nudi” software to the Government, why was the former not coming forward to set right the problems in it? The Government knew this aspect but was still keeping quiet, he alleged.
To solve all these problems, the Government should set up an expert committee to set right the problems. Seminars should be held at the district and taluk levels to create awareness and get inputs on the issue of Kannada software, Mr. Kumaraswamy said.
President of Patra Samskriti, Gerusoppa, H. Daregowda, and District Information Officer Jhunjanna were present.
