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Uttarakhand to make 1 lakh people learn Sanskrit to make it ‘common' spoken language

Uttarakhand to make 1 lakh people learn Sanskrit to make it ‘common' spoken language

The Hindu24-04-2025
With an aim to promote Sanskrit, the second official language of the State, as common spoken language, the Uttarakhand government on Thursday announced it will make 1 lakh people learn the language through classroom or online mode.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that the project for Sanskrit learning for common people will be implemented in a phased manner and the government will come up with schemes to ensure jobs for youth learning Sanskrit.
For this, the CM has asked the department concerned to make arrangements for certificate courses in 'yagya', Hindu rituals and Vedas recitation. He added that nodal officers should be appointed in the districts to promote Sanskrit.
Mr. Dhami was speaking at the 10th meeting of the General Committee of Uttarakhand Sanskrit Academy during which he instructed that arrangements should be made for better training of 16 sanskars (sacraments) for children studying Sanskrit. 'In the first phase, 100 children, and thereafter, every year by setting a target, the youth should be given training in the same. Also, competitions will be organized to make short films on various contemporary topics in Sanskrit along with schools organising debates, essay writing and shlok-writing competitions in the language,' Mr. Dhami said.
Mr. Dhami promised that those who play an important role in teaching, writing, preservation and promotion of Sanskrit language will be honoured monetarily too. He added that it should be ensured that the nameplates in all offices should also be in Sanskrit language.
Sanskrit Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat said that, at present, a total of 13 villages, one village in each district of the State, are being made Sanskrit Gram. This will be expanded to the block level in a phased manner. He suggested making arrangements like scholarship scheme for Sanskrit students and incentive scheme for priests to promote Sanskrit in the State. In the meeting, the members of the committee suggested that Sanskrit questions should be added in competitive examinations.
'Research in Sanskrit should be promoted,' he said.
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