Nepali to continue to remain official language

KATHMANDU, Nov 2: The high-level taskforce on Tuesday decided that Nepali language with Devnagari script will continue to remain the official language of the country.



Agreeing to adopt a multi-lingual policy, the taskforce also decided to constitute a permanent commission that will determine other tongues spoken in the country as official languages.[break]



"All languages spoken in Nepal as mother tongues and meeting the criteria set by the commission can be national languages," CPN-UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari told reporters after the meeting of the taskforce at Singha Durbar on Tuesday. Such a commission will be formed as per the new constitution.



Leaders in the taskforce resolved the disputes related to the languages after holding discussions on the preliminary draft report prepared by the Constituent Assembly (CA) committee on determining basis of cultural and social solidarity. The leaders have resolved all the 10 disputes in the thematic draft.



In case of the provinces, the legislature of the provinces will determine the tongues spoken in its areas as its official language.



There will be representation of the provinces in the commission that will set standards for any language to be recognized as the official language.



Any language needs to be spoken among certain percentage of the population and geography of the country to get the status of an official language. In addition, it needs have its own script, literature, lexicons and grammar.


Madhes-based political parties particularly, among others, had been demanding that languages other than Nepali be given the status of official languages.



"Now the ages-old policy of one-language-one-uniform has come to an end," said Chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum Upendra Yadav, who is also a member of the taskforce.



All the official languages shall be included in the annexes of the constitution and that will be equally important for all the provinces. Around 100 languages are spoken by various tribal, ethnic and regional communities across the country.

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