Bajwa takes up the issue of Punjabi language in UTJK in parliament

AMRITSAR: Rajya Sabha Member Parliament (MP) Partap Singh Bajwa, raised the issue of exclusion of Punjabi from the J&K Official Languages Bill, 2020 during the Zero Hour in parliament on Wednesday.
He informed that he had also pointed out that Schedule 6 of the constitution of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir recognised eight languages as regional languages of the state, including Punjabi.
The Centre government had on September 2, 2020, announced its approval of the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020, which would recognise Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi as official languages of the UTJK
He said there are significant number of speakers of the Punjabi language present in the UTJK.He informed that he had also sent a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider the Bill.
He had highlighted the long historical connection between Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab starting from 1808 when Jammu was brought as a province under the control of the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Bajwa said he had also mentioned the role Maharaja Ranjit Singh in promoting Gulab Singh Jamwal, as Governor of the Jammu province. Jamwal in 1846 had become the first ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In a letter, he also underlined the role of Punjabi as a language that connects people of different faiths both in India and around the world.