'Regional languages are being portrayed as useless'

Kannada Development Authority chairman Prof S G Siddaramaiah expressed his displeasure with portraying regional languages as useless.

Speaking at the distribution of Kannada Madyama award to meritorious students of Kannada medium from Mysuru zone, which was organised by Kannada Development Authority, at Adichunchanagiri Institute of Technology (AIT), he opined that regional languages have been suffering due to the ill-effects of globalisation. English is being treated as the omnipresent language and as a result, people have been ignoring their mother tongue.

The creativity of children who are deprived of studying in their mother tongue dies. Language is not the yardstick of intelligence. To think that all those who know English are intelligent is the height of ignorance.

"Kannada language has been facing many challenges. Kannadigas themselves are the reason for the ill fate of Kannada language. Hindi has been dominating the vernacular languages. The language of the region should be given priority."

Banking Recruitment examination questions are in Hindi and English. Therefore, the number Kannadigas who get appointed for the posts in the banking sector is less. There are more non-Kannadigas in the banks of Karnataka, he said.

Prizes were distributed to the students who scored the highest marks in SSLC and PUC examinations in Kannada medium. The first, second and third prize winners were awarded cash prizes of Rs 12,000, Rs 11,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively, along with certificates.

AIT principal Prof C K Subbaraya, Kannada Sahitya Parishat district Parishat Kundur Ashok, DDPI Rajappa, CMC president Shilpa Rajashekhar and Kannada Development Authority members P U Dinesh and Girish Patil were present.