Punjab Government has decieded to make it mandatory to put the name of any government or private institution in Punjabi language. A notification related to this will be issued shortly, said Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Minister of Higher Education, Govt of Punjab while inaugurating one-day International Conference on 'Punjabi Language, Literature and Culture : Modern Challenages and Possibilities' here today. Punjab Government and Guru Nanak Dev University organized this conference in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Auditorium of the University.Vice Chancellor, Prof. Jaspal Singh Sandhu welcomed Mr. Bajwa and other guests. Dr. S.P. Singh, former Vice Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University was the chief guest while Dr. Jaswinder Singh, former Professor, Punjabi University, Patiala delivered the keynote address. Dr. Manmohan, Additional Director, Home Ministry, Govt. of India was the special guest. Prof. S.S. Behl, Dean, Academic Affairs presented vote of thanks. Prof. K.S. Kahlon, Registrar and a large number of students, faculty and others were present. Dr. Darya, Head, School of Punjabi Studies gave the details about this one day conference. Dr. Manjinder Singh conducted the stage.Eleven eminent personalities of Punjabi Literature i.e. Dr. Karnail Singh Thind, Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh Frank, Dr. Manmohan, Dr. Ravel Singh, Dr. Joginder Singh Kairon, Prof. Kirpal Kazak, Sh. Balbir Madhopuri, Sh. Manmohan Bawa, Smt. Bachint Kaur, Smt. Surinder Nir and Sh. Nirmal Arpan were honoured on this occasion keeping in view their contribution in their respective fields.
Mr. Bajwa said that the objective of this one week Maa Boli Celebration was to create awareness and to feel proud about Punjabi language and literature. He said that at present there are about 12 crores Punjabi language speakers all over the world. Out of this 8 crores are in Pakistan, 3 crores in India and more than one crore spread all over the world. He said that at International level Punjabi language speakers are at tenth place among other languages. He said that our government, universities, colleges and schools needed to propagate the research about Punjabi language to make it popular all over the world. Dr. S.P. Singh said that sincere efforts are needed to associate with Punjabi Language as Pakistanis love Punjabi language and they use Shahmukhi script to write Punjabi. He said that efforts are needed to be done to make Punjabi Language as source of employment and Book Culture need to be revived in Punjab.Dr. Jaswinder Singh said that India is multi-cultural, multi-Lingulal and multi-religions country so one-dominated-culture is not relevant in this regard. He said that Punjabi language need to be promoted keeping view the versatility and nature of Punjabis.While his concern over the concern of success rate of Punjabi students in civil services, Dr. Manmohan said that there is need to provide competition material, references and translations in easy Punjabi language so that Punjabi students could get opportunity to excel in this field.