The Regional Conference under the aegis of the Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs, was organized by Regional Implementation Offices of North-1 and North-2 Regions in Chandigarh today. Central Government Officials from Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand participated in the conference.Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju was the Chief Guest in the conference. Speaking on the occasion, he said that Hindi is spoken by crores of people in the country. They think and express their ideas in Hindi; Hindi is medium of expression of all the elements of Indian culture and society. We should remember that Hindi is language of common people of the country. He added that Hindi was not only the language of freedom struggle but is also language of social interactions.On the occasion, Rijiju gave away awards among winners of various Central Govt. Offices, Banks, PSUs and Town Official Language Implementation Committees (TOLICs) situated in these regions towards implementation and promotion of the Official Language Policy of the Union.
The conference was convened under the chairmanship of the Joint Secretary, Department of Official Language, Dr. Bipin Behari. He informed that the Department is developing new tools such as Kanthasth Mobile Version and Memory based translation tools. He also apprised about the new initiatives being taken by the Department of Official Language and the expectations from TOLICs.Addressing the conference, Dr. Chaman Lal Gupta, Vice President of Indian Institute of Higher Education, Shimla said that the new generation should learn and use Hindi. The Head of Department of Hindi, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Dr. Gurmeet Singh advocated that Hindi should be easy to use; we should not differentiate between literary and working Hindi and that the use of Hindi in field of technology is essential. There must be coordination between translators, teachers, journalists and writers, he added.