Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a bill on Friday, making the Tamil paper compulsory for candidates to pass competitive exams for posts in the state government.
The bill was tabled to amend the Tamil Nadu Government Servants Act 2016. As per the changes, even if a candidate was qualified and acquired the job, he or she should pass in Tamil paper within two years of acquiring the job.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill to amend The Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016 said that as per Section 21 of this Act no person shall be eligible for appointment to any service by direct recruitment unless he has an adequate knowledge of the official language of the State, that is Tamil, reported PTI.
Last year, Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to make Tamil the official language in central government offices.
“Tamil as the mother tongue would help students understand their lessons better and will help them in attaining higher education and conducting further research in their subject. Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world. Preserving and promoting the Tamil language is the responsibility of the entire nation,” the union minister had said in an event in Chennai.
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Responding to this, minister Ponmudy said the initiative to teach engineering courses in Tamil was started 12 years ago by then Chief Minister Karunanidhi and a process is underway to translate medical textbooks into Tamil.
Thanking Home Minister Amit Shah for his interest in Tamil, Ponmudy urged the Centre to allocate more funds on par with the funds spent on the development of Sanskrit language.
