Lucknow, Sep 9 (IANS): In a significant move, the Uttar Pradesh government has directed that all the government hospitals in the state will have signboards and nameplates written in Urdu also.

The government directive in this regard followed a complaint by Unnao resident Mohammed Harun who maintained that many government departments were skipping Urdu on signage despite it being the second official language of the state.

All the chief medical officers (CMOs) of the state have been directed to ensure that nameplates, signboards and other information on display in the hospitals must also be written in Urdu along with Hindi.

The CMOs have been advised through the government order to direct that all the government hospitals, district hospitals, primary health centres, community health centres and other establishments of health department must carry the information in Urdu also on signboards, nameplates and other signages.

In his complaint, Unnao resident Mohammed Harun had maintained that despite Urdu having been declared the second official language of the state, many government departments, including the health department, are not following the government orders.

If this government order is implemented, 167 district hospitals, 2,934 primary health centres and 873 community health centres will have Urdu on their display boards along with Hindi.

UP had adopted Urdu as the second language through the UP Official Language (Amendment) Act, I989, which had added Section 3 to the UP Official Languages Act, 1951.