Make Punjabi official language of city: Chandigarh Punjabi Manch

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 1

Chandigarh Punjabi Manch took out a protest march today from Sector 19 to Sector 17 Plaza along with several other organisations. They have demanded that Punjabi be made the official language of Chandigarh. Around 400 people from all villages in and around Chandigarh, including various writers and poets, took part in the march.

General secretary of Chandigarh Punjabi Manch Devi Dayal Sharma said, “Ideally, the official language of Chandigarh was Punjabi. How it changed to English is still not known. There’s no official notification regarding this change. The people of this region have been robbed of their culture, their mother tongue.”

From the Pendu Sangharsh Committee, Gurpreet Singh Somal, shared on November 1, 1966, Haryana was carved out of the eastern and southern part of East Punjab to create a new state for a majority Haryanvi-speaking people, while the western portion of East Punjab retained a mostly Punjabi-speaking majority and was renamed as Punjab. “Chandigarh was declared a Union Territory to serve as the capital of both states, but it still is the only UT in India to have English as its official language,” he said.

Aman of PSU Lalkaar and Naujawan Bharat Sabha said, “Punjabi is the official language of Chandigarh even before it was planned. That’s why Punjabi should be the official language of this city.”