New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) There is “no proposal” currently under consideration to declare Maithili and Magadhi as classical languages, the government informed Parliament on Monday.
Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said this in a written response to a query in the Lok Sabha.
He was asked whether there is any proposal to declare Maithili and Magadhi languages as classical languages “lying pending with or under consideration before the government”.
“There is no proposal currently under consideration to declare Maithili and Magadhi as classical languages. As per the procedure established for declaring a language as a Classical Language, a detailed proposal with recommendations from respective state government is required which is placed before the Linguistic Experts Committee to assess the eligibility,” the minister said.
The Union Cabinet had earlier in October approved to confer the status of classical language to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali languages.
The Government of India decided to create a new category of languages as “classical languages” on October 12, 2004, declaring Tamil as a classical language.
A Linguistic Experts Committee (LEC) was constituted by the Ministry of Culture under Sahitya Akademi in November 2004 to examine the proposed languages for the status of classical language.
The criteria were revised in November 2005 and Sanskrit was declared a classical language.
The Government of India has conferred status of classical languages to Tamil in 2004, Sanskrit in 2005, Telugu in 2008, Kannada in 2008, Malayalam in 2013 and Odia in 2014.
In a separate query, the Union minister was also asked about the details of the recent recovery of 297 antiquities from the US.
“The objects have already been handed over to the office of Indian Consulate General of India, New York. The sanction order has been issued for the transportation of 297 antiquities from the US to India,” he said.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is committed to the protection of monuments, sites and antiquities under its jurisdiction, Shekhawat said.
“Besides regular watch and ward staff of the Archaeological Survey of India, Private Security Guards and Central Industrial Security Force have been deployed as per requirement. Whenever any theft of antiquity is reported, FIR is lodged in the concerned police station and ‘Look Out Notice’ is issued to the law enforcement agencies, including Custom Exit Channels to keep vigil to trace stolen antiquity and prevent its illegal export,” he added.
There are 3,698 centrally protected monuments (CPMs), including forts under the care and maintenance of the ASI with “adequate documentation”, the minister said in response to another query. PTI KND AS AS
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