HAMPI: Siddalingaiah, Chairman of Kannada Development Authority, on Friday said the Government should grant statutory powers to the authority to initiate disciplinary action against officials who failed to implement Kannada in administration at all levels.

Responding to questions here, Dr. Siddalingaiah said he had spoken about it at various levels and also to the Chief Minister. The response was encouraging, he said.

Dr. Siddalingaiah said though there were provisions to initiate disciplinary action against erring officials in the wake of the recommendations made by the authority, there were no instances of any action being taken.

He said failure to implement a Government Order would amount to dereliction of duty. Action such as reprimanding the erring official, withholding increments and promotions, and demoting him could be taken.

"I will pursue the matter, visit the Vidhana Soudha and other offices to ensure that Kannada is the official language in administration," he said and appealed to the officials to adhere to the orders passed in this connection.

To a question, he said Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service officers would have passed Kannada but they could not be conducting business in Kannada.

"I think there is no need to extend concession to them. I will urge the Government not to confirm their service till they learnt and functioned in Kannada," he said.

Dr. Siddalingaiah said he was aware of the problems in the border areas where Kannada-medium students were not getting textbooks and posts falling vacant following the retirement of teachers were not being filled.

"I will take up the matter with the Chief Minister and urge him to discuss the matter with the Ministers concerned and set things right," he said and added that he would visit the border areas and monitor whether things were improving.

B.A. Vivek Rai, Mallepuram Venkatesh, K.V. Narayan and Shankar, registrar of Kannada University, were present.

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