Jharkhand Govt gives 2nd language status to Angika

Jharkhand Govt gives 2nd language status to Bhojpuri, Maghi, Maithili & Angika
Shashank Shekhar

Ranchi. In a move to win over eral lakhs of Bhojpuri, Maghi, Maithali and Angika speakeing voters living in Jharkhand in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Raghubar Das government has included these four languages (Bhojpuri, Maghi, Maithali and Angika ) in the list of state’s second language. The State Cabinet approved it on March 21, 2018.

The decision to give second state language status to these four languages were taken on the basis of number of people in Jharkhand speaking these languages as per the 2011 census which was carried in the state. Maghi dominated the other language as 18.35 lakh people speak Maghi in Jharkhand followed by Bhojpuri (6.6 lakh) while 1.68 lakhs people speak Maithali .

Though Angika language mostly spoken in Godda, Sahebganj, Pakur, Deoghar and Dumka districts in Jharkhand also has been included in the second language list but census did not cover this language.

This information was given by cabinet secretary S K G Rahate after the cabinet meeting which took place on March 21 evening at Project Bhavan.

Its presumed that there has been huge increase in the number of people speaking these since the last census and it should be around 25 lakh now. It may be mentioned here that before giving second language status to these four languages on March 21, Jharkhand Government had earlier notified 11 other languages which include Urdu, Bengali, Odiya, Ho, Mundari, Khortha, Nagpuri, Kuruk, Khariya, Santhali and Panch Pargania giving them second official language status.




(Source - http://www.thespeedpost.com/jharkhand-govt-gives-2nd-language-status-to-bhojpuri-maghi-maithili-angika/)