From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Jul 31: In an emotive issue that is very dear to the people of coastal Karnataka, the State Government has promised to submit a detailed proposal to Centre seeking inclusion of Tulu language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
 
This assurance came from Kannada and Culture Minister Umashree in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
 
Replying to B A Moideen Bava, Congress MLA from Mangalore North assembly constituency, during the question hour, she said the State Government fully supported the demand from the Tulu speaking people of the coastal region for inclusion of the language in the eigth schedule of the constitution.

Umashree said a proposal had already bent to the Centre but authorities in Delhi sought more information about the origin and number of Tulu speaking people in the State.
“We have yet to get the data on the exact number of Tulu language speaking people as per the 2011 Census,” she said.

After obtaining the authentic Census data on Tulu speaking people, the department would submit the revised proposal to the Centre, she said.

Earlier, the department had submitted the proposal based on the 2001 Census.
The minister said the Centre had written to the State last month seeking details about the language and the number of Tulu speaking people in the State.

Centre Sanctions Rs 2.92 Cr for Kannada Development

In a reply to a  question from JD(S) member Gopalaiah K JD, the minister said the Centre sanctioned Rs 2.92 crore for the development of the Kannada language under the classical status given in 2008.

Efforts would be made to obtain more funds from the Centre in the coming days.
Earlier, Y S V Datta of JD(S) said that the State had received negligible funds compared to Tamil, which was granted the classical language status earlier.

The State has not made efforts to seek more funds from the Centre to promote the Kannada language, he said.