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Journalism of Courage
The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday amended a legislation, to make at least 40 per cent marks in Tamil language mandatory for all state government jobs, with retrospective effect from December 1, 2021.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill to amend The Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016, said that as per Section 21 of this Act, no person shall be eligible for appointment to any service by direct recruitment unless he has an adequate knowledge of the official language of the state, that is Tamil.
After DMK came to power, a compulsory Tamil language paper was introduced in all competitive examinations for direct recruitment conducted by all recruiting agencies and it was implemented through a Government Order dated December 1, 2021. As the order was to ensure 100 per cent recruitment of Tamil youth in all state government departments and state public sector enterprises, the Act is now being amended to validate the actions taken in compliance with the Government Order.
A top government official said the Government Order was issued following multiple complaints that non-Tamils, especially from northern states, were bagging jobs in several state government boards, such as the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), through “corruption”. An officials said the earlier rule allowed people to clear the Tamil language exam within two years after getting the job.
“Even as clearing Tamil language exam was mandatory for promotions and other benefits in the service, we have decided to make it mandatory at the recruitment stage itself,” said the official.
“Tamil paper will be evaluated first and other subjects only if the candidate gets 40 per cent marks in Tamil. For certain grades such as Group IV, (posts such as Village Administrative Officer fall in this grade) if a candidate gets more than 40 (per cent) marks in Tamil, it will add to their overall score,” the official said.
