New Delhi, Dec 23: Parliament today approved a constitution amendment to include Bodo and three other languages in the 8th schedule taking the number of official languages in the country to 22. The constitution (one hundredth amendment) bill 2003, passed by Lok Sabha yesterday, was unanimously passed by Rajya Sabha to include Maithili, Dogri and tribal languages Bodo and Santhali in the 8th schedule of the constitution.
The bill was passed after Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani assured members to bring in a comprehensive legislation to include more languages in the 8th schedule after consulting experts and linguists.
"As it is there is demand for inclusion of 35 more languages including several dialects of Hindi like Rajasthani, Bhojpuri and Brij Bhasha", he said.
The amendment to include Bodo, Advani said was brought in pursuance of memorandum of settlement between Bodos, Assam government and the Centre. Santhali language was also included as it was spoken widely by another tribal group in the area.
Bureau Report