HYDERABAD: Thirtynine years may be too short a period in course of a State's history but any delay on the part of the Government in taking action on an issue for so long can become a historical mistake difficult to rectify.

The casualty of the inordinate delay in this case was the official language of the State, Telugu. The wheels of the administration took precisely 39 years to move and notify the legislation passed by the Assembly, providing for implementation of Telugu as the State's official language.

It was in 1966 that the Assembly had adopted the Andhra Pradesh Official Language Act making Telugu the State's official language. However, the implementation since then has been found wanting, because the Government did not follow up the legislation with the necessary notification addressed to different departments. Nor did it issue "rules & regulations" that customarily follow a legislative piece.

Surprise checks

In the absence of these, the implementation so far has been through oral orders issued by department heads as and when the successive Chief Ministers issued a statement glorifying "Telugu thalli" or when the Chairman of the Official Language Commission went on surprise checks.

The lacuna was detected recently when the present Chairman, A. B. K. Prasad, scanned all the files relating the Act gathering dust in the corridors of the Secretariat.

He had at once initiated the file climaxing in the Governor issuing the notification on September 13 through an extraordinary gazette ordering that "all orders, rules, regulations and bylaws issued by the Government shall be in Telugu."

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