Ranchi, March 21: The Jharkhand Government today gave its nod to the proposal for awarding second state language status to four languages including Magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili and Angika.

A decision in this regard was taken in the meeting of the state Cabinet which was chaired by Chief Minister Raghubar Das at the project building here.

Briefing the press after the meeting, the state Cabinet Secretary SKG Rahate said the Cabinet has given approval to Bihar Rajbhasa (Jharkhand Amendment) Ordinance 2018. Prior to that 12 languages including Urdu, Santhali, Mundari, Ho , Khadiya, Khurkhu,Kurmali, Kortha, Nagpuri, Odiya, Panchpargania and Bangla had beengiven the status of second state language.

According to the government records Magahi is the most spoken among the four languages as 18.35 lakh people speak the language while another 6.56 speak Bhojpuri while 1.41 lakh people use Maithili.

However, there is no official record of people speaking Angika. Rahate said that Angika is mainly spoken in Godda, Dumka and other districts of Santhal Pargana. He said that the population census does not have any mention of this language but a notification in this regard was issued by the home department in 2009 while apart from that in teacher recruitment exam there is a provision for the candidates to appear in examination in Angika language.

A total of 12 proposals were approved in the Cabinet meeting which also included a decision to shift the headquarters of special India Reserve Battalion (Primitive tribes) from Dumka to Pakur. The battalion was formed in 2015. During the pre-budget discussion held on December 4, 2017 in Pakur it was decided that the headquarters would be shifted to Pakur which has been finally approved by the Cabinet.

The Cabinet also approved amendments in the family pension scheme of the ex-MLAs of the state assembly. It was now decided that the kin of the ex MLAs would be given 75 per cent benefit of the family pension and in case both the husband and wife are dead, the dependent son/daughter would be given the same facility till they turn adults.

The Cabinet also decided that the system officer working in the civil courts under e-court project would be paid Rs 32,000. The Cabinet also approved a sum of Rs 10.88 crore for the expenditure occurred on organising the Jharkhand Statehood Formation Function 2017.