J&K govt sets up council for promotion of Urdu

The Jammu & Kashmir government today constituted the first ever State Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (SCPUL) in a bid to promote the official language of the state.
According to an order issued by the Principal Secretary to the Government, Higher Education Department, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, the council would be headed by the education minister.
The non-official members of the council include Prof Hamidi Kashmiri, Prof Mohammad Zaman Azurdah, Prof Nazir Ahmad Malik, Prof Noor Mohammad Shah, Prof Ahmad Quddus Javed, Prof Zahoor-ud-Din, Wali Mohammad Aseer, Farooq Muztar, Khalid Bashir Ahmad and Javed Azar.
The official members include vice-chancellors of all central and state universities in the state, administrative secretaries of finance, school education, culture and law departments; secretary of the J&K academy of art, culture and languages, among others.

The announcement was made by the Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu in the Assembly in his budget speech last month.
"Urdu is not just the official language of the state and spoken in all its regions, it is also a vast repository of the cultural heritage of the Indian sub-continent, popularly known as Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb," Drabu had said.
He said the government had announced forming a Council for Promotion of Urdu Language last year, but that could not get fructified in time.
"This year, the proposed council will be formed without any further delay. I have set aside Rs 2 crore for this purpose," he said.