Rajya Sabha members can speak in any of the 22 scheduled languages from the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on July 18, with the Secretariat arranging simultaneous interpretation for five more languages: Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkani, Santhali and Sindhi.
On Tuesday, the Secretariat inducted a panel of interpreters. Of the 22 languages, the Rajya Sabha already has simultaneous interpretation for Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
The interpreters of the Lok Sabha are being deployed for Bodo, Maithili, Manipuri, Marathi and Nepali.
Give notice period
However, the members have to give notice of a reasonable period for the interpreter.
“I have always felt that the mother tongue is the natural medium to convey our feelings and thoughts... Members must not feel handicapped or inferior to others because of language constraints. That was why I was keen on simultaneous interpretation for all 22 scheduled languages. I am glad this is becoming a reality from the coming monsoon session,” Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said, inducting the interpreters.