Stating that Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has failed to uphold the State’s language policy, Kannada Development Authority (KDA) has asked the Karnataka government to take strict action against ‘all officers’.
In a letter to Additional Chief Secretary (Urban Development Department) Mahendra Jain on Wednesday, KDA Chief S.G. Siddaramaiah has said their inspection of metro stations and meetings with officials earlier this week revealed shortcomings in implementation of the language policy.
“We categorically state that BMRCL is a State government-run corporation and should follow the language policy introduced in the State. A two-language policy (Kannada and English) is mandatory, and there is no scope for the introduction of three languages,” Mr. Siddaramaiah told The Hindu .
The letter claims that BMRCL has been ‘blatantly’ violating this policy since 2011. The KDA chief said, “I will meet the chief minister and appraise him about what we observed. We want the report to change the way this corporation functions.”
Kannadiga engineers
It wasn’t just the language policy that irked the KDA. They noted that most workers involved in cleaning and the private security services were not from the State. KDA has asked the government to prepare a list of employees and the language they speak.
KDA noted that all seven Chief Engineers at BMRCL are not Kannadigas. “In a State with the most number of engineering colleges, there are enough and more engineers in the State...this is a clear violation of the Sarijini Mahishi report (which states that a public sector corporation should have 100% reservation for Kannadigas in Group C, D classes; and 80% in Group B), and the services of these engineers should be terminated,” states the letter.
While BMRCL has made Kannada the default language on its website, the KDA wants Kannada to be used in advertisements at metro stations. At present, all advertisements are in English.
BMRCL officials were not available for comment. However, in presentations made to the visiting KDA team, the company had said that while Kannada is being used as much as possible, there are certain sections where the State language could not be used due to frequent communication with those from outside the State.
