HYDERABAD: Telangana State will celebrate its language day known as ‘Telangana Bhasha Dinosthavam’ on September 9 every year to coincide with the birth anniversary of noted Telangana poet Kaloji Narayana Rao.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who held discussions on the same, has decided to declare it as a State function. Kaloji Memorial Award will be instituted in the poet’s honour and would be given away to those who have contributed significantly to Telangana language and literature.
This year, an official function will be held at Ravindra Bharathi on September 9 with ministers in attendance. However, the Chief Minister will give the first Language Day celebrations a miss as he will be in China for World Economic Forum meet between September 7 and 16.
It would be pertinent to note that Telangana government has given up celebrating the Telugu Language Day on August 29 to mark the birth anniversary of Gidugu Venkata Ramamurthy, who championed the cause of using comprehensible language in literary texts.
Meanwhile, Kaloji Narayana Rao a prolific writer and poet in Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, and Urdu is credited for his activist writing and vocal support for the cause of Telangana. A Padma Vibhushan recipient, he is also highly respected as a political activist who staunchly opposed the feudal attitude of Nizams.
All the district administrations have been instructed to organise celebrations on a grand scale. The education department has been ordered to conduct debate, essay writing, poetry competitions in schools tocelebrate the day.
The chief minister, who is leaving for China on Monday, convened a meeting with officials and gave his nod to the draft policy. “The CM approved the draft policy which is more or less similar to the existing one,” said Ajay Misra, revenue principal secretary (excise).
Although the government favoured status quo, the tenure of new licences to be issued to retail dealers will be for two years instead of the current one-year term. Also, the licence fee is going to be increased by 10 per cent. For instance, in Hyderabad, the licence fee for a retail outlet will go up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 99,000.
Misra said the notification of the new policy was expected in a couple of days. And the licences will be issued through a draw of lots. The number of shops will remain the same at 2,200. The business hours of the shops, however, is expected to change from the current 11 am-10 pm to 10 am-11pm.
While welcoming the government’s decision to retain the present excise policy, Telangana Wine Dealers’ Association demanded an increase in trade margin for the dealers from the present 25 per cent to 30 per cent.
