There is no question of the Centre imposing Hindi on non-Hindi speaking States, said Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers H.N. Ananth Kumar here on Monday.
Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of a programme organised by the Karnataka Engineers’ Federation, to mark the 154 birth anniversary of Sir M. Visvesvaraya, he said the Union government would abide by the constitutional provisions in according primacy to regional language and under no circumstances would Hindi be imposed on non-Hindi speaking States.
To emphasise the Centre’s stand on regional language, he said: “When I had the privilege of speaking at the United Nations, I addressed the General Assembly in Kannada.”
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When his attention was drawn to the statement made by former BJP Minister and Hukkeri MLA Umesh Katti on separate Statehood for northern Karnataka, Mr. Ananth Kumar said: “Nobody should raise a demand of this kind. Unified Karnataka is the only solution to achieve progress and differences with regard to development of that region,” he said.
The Minister refused to react on the reported plan of the State government to “ban Sri Rama Sene”.
Earlier, inaugurating the technical workshop, Mr. Ananth Kumar promised to impress upon the State government and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to allocate land for setting up a Technical Education Centre in the name of Sir Visvesvaraya.
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Underlining the need to have a common wage structure and service security for engineers across the country, he said, he would speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this. “An engineer’s role is pivotal in realising Prime Minister’s dream of making India a developed country,” he added.