The Karnataka cabinet approved the amendment of the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development ordinance on January 5.
Hereafter, commercial establishments, industries, hospitals, and various institutions will be required to display 60% Kannada on their signboards and nameplates.
For decades, Kannada organisations and litterateurs have been demanding that the government enforce compulsory Kannada boards and signages for shop, and business establishments operating in the state.
Several protests led by Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Narayana Gowda faction) were witnessed in parts of Karnataka, especially in Bengaluru where the workers tore and destroyed signboards. The intense protests led to the preventive custody of its conveyor T A Narayana Gowda.
According to them, the business establishments were “undermining the official language of Karnataka, which is Kannada.”
