Sadanand Gowda meets HRD minister Javadekar, seeks steps to promote Kannada

The demands included that the government should recommend UNESCO to include Kannada in its tradition of publishing history of classical languages on its domain and conducting competitive examinations including NEET and JEE in the language.

Union Minister Sadanand Gowda (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey/File)

Union minister and former Karnataka chief minister Sadanand Gowda on Wednesday met Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar and demanded that steps be taken to promote Kannada, including conducting of competitive exams in the language.

Gowda led a 14-member delegation and presented a memorandum of demands to Javadekar. The demands included that the government should recommend UNESCO to include Kannada in its tradition of publishing history of classical languages on its domain and conducting competitive examinations including NEET and JEE in the language.

The delegation also demanded that the appointment of the project director of Centre for Classical Studies’ Kannada wing be finalised as the body is currently headless. “The HRD Minister assured us that the demands will be considered. He agreed to write a letter to UNESCO and expedite the appointment of the project director,” a delegation member said.

“The Minister told us that competitive examinations like NEET are already conducted in Kannada and the ministry will consider conducting those exams in the language which are presently not conducted in the particular language,” he said.

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