With the commencement of Monsoon Session on July 18, members of the Rajya Sabha can speak in any of the 22 languages. The Upper House is providing the facility for simultaneous interpretation in five more languages of Kashmiri, Dogri, Santhali, Konkani and Sindhi.

This came after a panel of new interpreters was inducted by Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday. The panel was awarded the certificate of completion of training and eligibility by Naidu.

The Rajya Sabha chairman, soon after assuming office, had assured of taking necessary measures to enable members speak in any of the 22 languages, that have been listed in the 8^th Schedule of Constitution.

He had said that speaking in mother tongue enables better expression of thoughts.

In a multilingual setting like the Parliament, members must not feel handicapped or inferior to others due to language constraints, Naidu said.

 

“I have always felt that mother tongue is the natural medium to convey our feelings and thoughts without any retention," said Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.

"That is why I was keen to have simultaneous interpretation facility for all the 22 scheduled languages. I'm glad this is becoming a reality from the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament, he added.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat had made special efforts to identify, select and train the interpreters in these five languages.

Rajya Sabha had earlier established simultaneous interpretation service of 12 of the 22 scheduled languages, that include Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada, Telegu, Oriya, Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi and Marathi.

Interpreters of Lok Sabha were being deployed for five languages – Marathi, Nepali, Manipuri, Maithili, and Bodo.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat took the help of language departments of universities, missions of respective states in Delhi and various welfare associations, to overcome the challenge of identifying suitable candidates for simultaneous interpretation of Kashmiri, Dogri, Santhali, Konkani and Sindhi, said a Rajya Sabha statement.