Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)
Puttur, Feb 18: Union minister, Ananth Kumar Hegde, who seems to have an uncanny knack of getting embroiled in controversies, courted another one. Perhaps overtaken by his enthusiasm to speak about his love for his mother tongue, he overlooked the fact that he was antagonizing people from certain districts.
Hegde, who holds skill development portfolio at the centre, speaking after initiating the programme of providing free technical training under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Yojana at Vivekananda Polytechnic College, Puttur, on Saturday February 17, said that translating things from English into Kannada has been posing a big challenge of late.
"There is nothing like pure Kannada anywhere now. Other than certain pockets Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada districts, others do not have the capacity to speak proper Kannada," Hegde stated, fueling a new controversy.
Speaking further, Hegde noted that the state of Kannada at Bengaluru has become worse, with the situation there having become critical. "We have a government led by Siddanna (Siddaramaiah), which lacks even in basic skill. The central government has sanctioned grant to the state to conduct Regional SkillGap Analysis. We have to see how this government makes use of this grant. What can people lacking even basic skills do?" he ridiculed.
Hegde's statement which occurred in a zeal to speak about his concern for Kannada language has stoked one more controversy as people of other districts feel th at they and their concern for Kannada have been drubbed by the minister.
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