Deccan Herald
 
Bangalore, May 3: Under the new legislation, Labour Department officials can slap on the spot a penalty of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 if establishments failed to display Kannada nameboards.
 
Kannada Development Authority (KDA) Chairman Dr Siddalingaiah has warned commercial and industrial establishments of stiff penalty if they failed to display prominently nameboards in Kannada.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, Dr Siddalingaiah said the State Legislature had recently enacted legislation in this regard. Under the new legislation, Labour Department officials can slap on the spot a penalty of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 if establishments failed to display Kannada nameboards.

“If they don’t comply with the rules, shopowners face up to six months in prison, besides a penalty of upto Rs 20,000. For the second time violation, the imprisonment stipulated is one year,” he added.

Enforcement drive

The new law would be gazetted in 15 days.

“After the gazette notification, we will give 45 days’ time to establishments to comply with the rules. After that, a drive would be launched for enforcing the rules,” Dr Siddalingaiah stated. A campaign would also be launched to popularise the use of Kannada numerals. The chairman made it clear that the usage of Kannada numerals on government vehicles would be made compulsory.

Workshops

The authority also proposed to organise workshops on the use of Kannada in day-to-day life.

“First a State level workshop would be organised and subsequently workshops would be held at district-level,” he added.

The chairman expressed his happiness over the implementation of Kannada in KSRTC.

“The authorities have promised to issue bus tickets in Kannada within 45 days,” he added.