BANGALORE: Members of Parliament from the State have taken exception to the deletion of Kannada from the list of languages in which they can speak in the two Houses. A delegation of MPs from the State is expected to take up the matter with both the Lok Sabha secretariat and the Government of India and press for the appointment of a Kannada translator.

Appaji Gowda, who was the translator, retired from service and no successor has been appointed. It is stated that following the retirement of the translator, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has advised members from Karnataka to speak in English.

Kannada has now been deleted from the list of 12 languages allowed to be used in the House. It is of interest that while a major language like Kannada has been deleted, Nepalese and Manipuri, which are spoken by only a few members, remain on the list of authorised languages.

State BJP president D.V. Sadananda Gowda, who represents Mangalore in the Lok Sabha, said that so far there was no categorical answer from the Speaker on meeting the request for appointing an official translator.

He told presspersons here on Friday that a meeting of MPs from the State would be held at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss and prepare a memorandum on the border dispute with Maharashtra, according classical language status to Kannada and arrangements for translating Kannada speeches in Parliament.

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