Hyderabad: Urdu became the second official language of the state on Thursday, with the Assembly adopting the Telangana State Official Languages (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The Bill amended the 1966 Telangana State Official Languages Act, under which each district was taken as a unit, while in the amended Act, the state has been taken as a unit.

In undivided AP, the Act covered only nine out of 10 erstwhile districts of Telangana. Khammam was exempted from adopting Urdu citing lack of Urdu-speaking and reading people. The 1966 Act remained only on paper as none of the districts implemented it in letter and spirit. Chief Minister K. Chan-drasekhar Rao announ-ced in the House recently that the government would adopt Urdu as the official second language and for this it will appoint Urdu administrative officers in all important government institutions — from the Assembly, CMO, Cabinet ministers to district headquarters — to enable correspondence between the government and people.

MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi who has been demanding for long that Urdu be made the second official language, thanked the Chief Minister and described it as a momentous occasion. Roads and buildings Tummala Nageswara Rao said the amendment was needed because of the creation of 21 new districts in October 2016. “As per the earlier Act, the district was taken as a unit for implementation of Urdu. The 21 new districts were not covered under the Act. Moreover, Khammam district was exempted earlier. Now, the new Act has covered all the 31 districts and will take the entire state as a unit for making Urdu the second language,” he said.

BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy said it was “no use bringing in such Acts if the government lacks sincerity. Take the case of Telugu, which was made the official first language. No government correspondence happens in Telugu.” and all GOs and other important documents are issued only in English. If government is really sincere about Urdu, it should first try to implement Telugu as the official first language in letter and spirit.”