Nepali and English in Hills

DARJEELING, 1 JUNE: Taking a cue from Miss Mamata Banerjee's gesture in asking for public announcements also in Nepali at the New Jalpaiguri railway station, the GJMM town committee in Darjeeling has asked owners of business establishments and traders to redesign their signboards to ensure that Nepali as well as English are used. “We would also request the government offices to accept applications written in Nepali,” said the GJMM Darjeeling town committee president, Mr Isha Mani Pakhrin. “We are grateful to the new chief minister for her initiative to make Nepali one of the languages for public announcement at the NJP station. It is in sync with her policy to consider Nepali as the second language in areas where ten per cent or above of the population is Nepalese. She has also asked the state government departments to carry on official work in the Nepali language in the Nepali-majority areas. We thank her for her bold initiatives in bestowing the recognition on the Nepali language which is one of the constitutionally recognised languages in the country,” he said. He further hoped that the chief minister's initiatives would go a long away in changing the attitude of certain government officers here in Darjeeling who kept refusing to accept applications written in Nepali. sns