After wooing the Poorvanchali diaspora in the capital, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to focus on the Uttaranchali literati. The Delhi government Sunday gave a nod to set up what is going to be the country’s first state-funded academy for Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari languages.

“There have been long pending demands to start an academy for these three languages of Uttaranchal and we find the demand justified. Delhi has a dominant Uttaranchali population and it will also promote tourism for us. It has been our aim to promote languages and culture and with a dominant population from Uttaranchal in Delhi, we do think there is a need to put this in place. Today we have decided on the formation of one such new academy and the process of setting it up will take at least six months to complete,” Tourism and Culture Minister Kapil Mishra told The Indian Express.

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“This will be a first of its kind. Even Uttarakhand does not have any such academy. The three languages of Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari are extremely rich and need to be preserved and promoted. Hope this will inspire the Uttarakhand government to start it in their own state too.”

The Delhi government will now scout for a noted literary personality adept at the languages for the post of vice-chairman while a bureaucrat will have to be appointed as the secretary of the academy.

An annual sanction of Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore is made for the various language academies and a similar allocation is set to be sought in the next budget for the new academy too.

The language academies aim to conserve and promote dying languages and dialects. They identify writers and poets and promote and publish their works. The academies also function as a melting pot for their diaspora.

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