Rajya Sabha members can speak in any of the 22 scheduled languages from the Monsoon Session starting July 18 as the Upper House providing the facility of for simultaneous interpretation in in five more languages of Dogri, Kashmiri, KOnkani, Santhli and Sindhi. At the initiative of Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, the Upper House now has interpreters for all the 22 Indian languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, for simultaneous interpretation of House proceedings.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said that simultaneous interpretation facility was added. Of the 22 scheduled languages, Rajya Sabha has earlier established Simultaneous Interpretation Service for 12 languages — Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
For five languages – Bodo, Maithili, Manipuri, Marathi and Nepali, interpreters of Lok Sabha are being deployed. Mr Naidu said he has always felt that mother tongue is the natural medium to convey our feelings and thoughts without any retention. Mr Naidu formally inducted the interpreters for these languages today.
I have always felt that mother tongue is the natural medium to convey our feelings and thoughts without any retention,” said Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.He is of the opinion that the Parliament, being a multilingual setting, should not deter members from speaking due to language constraints.
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat took the help of language departments of universities, missions of respective states in Delhi and various welfare associations, to overcome the challenge of identifying suitable candidates for simultaneous interpretation of Kashmiri, Dogri, Santhali, Konkani and Sindhi, said a Rajya Sabha statement.
An official said that the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has made “special efforts” to identify, select and train interpreters in these five languages and took help of various universities and missions of the states in New Delhi.
“That’s why I was keen to have simultaneous interpretation facility for all the 22 Scheduled languages. I am glad this is becoming a reality from the coming Monsoon Session,” added Naidu.