Hyderabad: Telangana home minister Mahmood Ali said on Saturday that examinations for the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) group-1 jobs can be written in Urdu, and young people who are proficient in the language must make most of the opportunity.
He also said that it’s unfortunate that some are politicising the matter, pointing fingers at the state BJP.
Mahmood Ali then credited chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for bringing in 80,000 jobs and making it possible for the candidates to write the exam in Urdu.
The home minister was the chief guest at the inaugural function of a two-day training class organized by the Telangana Media Academy at the Urdu Muskan Auditorium in the old city of Hyderabad.
Addressing the audience, he said that the Telangana government has appointed 66 Urdu officials in the state to reply to requests and provide explanations in Urdu.
Allam Narayana, chairman of the academy, who presided over the event, said that the role of the Urdu language in the struggle for independence was second to none and that the first magazine in Urdu was published by Jane Jahanuma from Calcutta in 1822, edited by Lala Sadashuklal.
He said that Urdu is a living language and hence the Telangana government has given it a second official language status and is working to keep it alive by implementing it in thirty-three districts of the state.
Alleging favoritism to a particular community by including Urdu as a medium in the exams, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay had promised that if and when BJP comes to power, their government will remove candidates who chose Urdu as their medium in the exam.
Financial aid for journalists
The home minister also added that chief minister KCR had released Rs 42 crore for the welfare of Telangana’s journalists and that the Media Academy had supported 600 journalists with it by providing financial assistance to them.
The government extends financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to the family of deceased journalists and a pension of Rs 3,000 per month to their spouse for five years, he said. State government is also offering a tuition fee of one thousand rupees for the children of the family.
The Media Academy has conducted training classes for journalists in ten joint districts of the state, through which 6000 journalists have honed their professional skills. The home minister said special training classes were also conducted for Dalit journalists and women journalists in the state.
Charminar legislator Mumtaz Ahmed Khan said he was happy that the training classes organized by the Media Academy for Urdu journalists were taking place in his constituency. He suggested that journalists should take advantage of the classes conducted by the academy.
At the event, the Home Minister handed over Rs 1 lakh financial assistance from the academy to Salma Begum, wife of the recently deceased Urdu journalist Sheikh Khaiser.
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