The government said it was a long-standing demand of the people to give official language status to these languages

The Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020, which proposes to include Kashmiri, Dogri, and Hindi as official languages of Jammu and Kashmir in addition to English and Urdu, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

"The Bill fulfills the decades' long wishes of the people of the region. It is a big step which will give official language status to Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi, English, and Urdu," Minister of State Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said.

Reddy further said that it was a long-standing demand of the people to give official language status to these languages.

"While 53.26 percent speak Kashmiri, Dogri is spoken by 20.64 percent people. It is a long-standing demand of the people to give official language status to these languages, but those who ruled for 70 years there did not do so," Reddy said.

Calling it a “historic” decision, Reddy appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to safeguard regional languages.

“In a historic decision, the Parliament approved The J&K Official Languages Bill, 2020 recognising Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi apart from English and Urdu as the Official languages of the UT.This reaffirms the @narendramodi govt's commitment to safeguard our traditional languages,” Reddy tweeted.



On Tuesday, Lok Sabha had passed the same bill which was introduced in the Lower House of Parliament by Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had called it a “momentous day” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

He took to Twitter and said, “A momentous day for the people of J&K as Jammu Kashmir Official Languages (Amendment) Bill was passed in Lok Sabha. With this historic bill...The long-awaited dream of the people of J&K comes true! Kashmiri, Dogri, Urdu, Hindi, and English will now be the official languages of J&K.”



He further noted that the bill will strengthen the existing institutional structure for the promotion and development of regional languages.

“Under this bill, special efforts will be made towards the development of major regional languages like 'Gojri', 'Pahari', and 'Punjabi'.

Along with this, the bill will also strengthen the existing institutional structure for the promotion and development of regional languages,” Shah said in a tweet.

The Home Minister went on to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his commitment to restoring the culture of Jammu and Kashmir through the bill.

“I thank PM @narendramodi Ji for his commitment towards restoring the culture of Jammu and Kashmir through this bill. I also want to assure our sisters and brothers of Jammu and Kashmir that the Modi govt will leave no stone unturned to bring back the glory of Jammu and Kashmir,” he further tweeted.