Of the six lakh State Government employees, over a lakh employees, including many IAS and IPS officers, are finding it difficult to use Kannada in the day-to-day administration as they are not proficient in the language.
A survey conducted by the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) has revealed that several top government officials have not been carrying out the day-to-day administration in Kannada as they are unable to read and write the language.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, KDA Chairman Mukhyamantri Chandru said the KDA and the Department of Kannada and Culture will jointly conduct a training in Kannada language skills for 1,00,300 government employees in the next two years. The training programmes will be organised at a cost of Rs. 2.5 crore.
Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa will inaugurate the training programme in the first week of November.
According to Mr. Chandru, while employees of A, B, and C category will undergo a three-day training in Kannada language skills, ‘D’ category employees will be given a day’s training. For the ‘D’ category employees, the stress will be laid on teaching them to use the language in a better manner, Mr. Chandru said.
The three-day training programme for 4,000 IAS and IPS officials will be held at the Administrative Training Centre, Mysore.
The Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) has been asked to issue a circular directing all the identified officials to attend the programme compulsorily. Booklets on use of Kannada in the State administration will be given to all trainees, Mr. Chandru added.
There are 6,600 employees of ‘B’ category, 62,350 ‘C’ category employees, and 27,350 ‘D’ category employees who have been identified for the training programme.
Training in Kannada language skills will be imparted to ‘A’ category employees by 225 resource personnel who have been trained at Kannada University, Hampi.
A committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner has been constituted in each of the districts in the State to monitor the training programme for employees of ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ categories.
In each of the districts, 15 resource personnel will be identified to impart training to employees of ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ categories, Mr. Chandru added.
A separate training session will be organised for identified employees of the Department of Energy, Public Works and Home as these departments use technical words in their orders and circulars, he added.
