. In pursuance of the provision of Article 350-B of the Constitution, the office of the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities was created in 1957. He is designated as the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities.
The Commissioner takes up all the matters pertaining to the grievances arising out of the non- implementation of the Constitutional and Nationally Agreed Scheme of Safeguards provided to linguistic minorities that come to its notice or are brought to its knowledge by the linguistic minority individuals, groups, associations or organisations at the highest political and administrative levels of the state governments and UT administrations and recommends remedial actions to be taken.
To promote and preserve linguistic minority groups, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has requested the State Governments / Union Territories to give wide publicity to the constitutional safeguards provided to linguistic minorities and to take necessary administrative measures. The state governments and UT Administrations were urged to accord priority to the implementation of the scheme of safeguards for linguistic minorities. The Commissioner launched a 10 point programme to lend fresh impetus to Governmental efforts towards the preservation of the language and culture of linguistic minorities.
Objectives
- To provide equal opportunities to the linguistic minorities for inclusive development and national integration
- To spread awareness amongst the linguistic minorities about the safeguards available to them
- To ensure effective implementation of the safeguards provided for the linguistic minorities in the Constitution and other safeguards, which are agreed to by the states / U.T.s
- To handle the representations for redress of grievances related to the safeguards for linguistic minorities