Chandigarh: Citing Punjab’s historical links with Jammu and Kashmir since Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s time, chief minister Amarinder Singh, on Wednesday, sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention for inclusion of Punjabi in the official list of languages of the UT.
Amarinder urged him to advise the Union ministry of home affairs to reconsider and review the official list and include Punjabi also as one of the official languages in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir.
Citing the resentment of the Punjabi community over the exclusion of Punjabi from the list of official languages, Amarinder Singh pointed out that Jammu & Kashmir was a part of Punjab during the era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, with Punjabi as one of the vernacular languages of the region. When Jammu & Kashmir came into existence as an Independent state, Punjabi was a widely spoken language and is now the mother tongue of all the Punjabis in the Jammu region, besides being spoken by the Punjabi community living in Kashmir Valley, he wrote. (ToI)
