Meeting on Apr.19, 20: Mukhyamantri Chandru

Bangalore, Apr. 1 (KMS&DM)- Well-known Kannada writers, linguistic experts and activists have been invited to a meeting on April 19 and 20 at the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) in Mysore to work out the modalities for implementing various Central government schemes for the development of Kannada as a classical language.

This was announced by Kannada Development Authority Chairman Mukhyamantri Chandru at a press conference here yesterday. He also said that CIIL was to be the nodal agency in the implementation of the schemes. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has been directed by the Ministry of Human Resources to allocate grants for the project.

In 2008, Kannada and Telugu were accorded classical status by the Central government. The then Joint Secretary of HRD, Anita Bhatnagar, in a letter to the UGC had said that with the clearance of the Law and Justice Ministry, the Ministry of HRD could go ahead with providing facilities for Kannada and Telugu as classical languages. She had also said that the mechanism to set up chairs such as selection or invitation, tenure of the chair, qualification and minimum age and quantum of emoluments could be determined by the UGC later.

In another letter to the Director of CIIL, Bhatnagar asked the institute to firm up proposals to set up of a Centre of Excellence for Studies in Kannada and Telugu at its premises.

Courtesy : Star Of Mysore