Culture Ministry's magazine adjudged best non-commercial magazine

New Delhi, Sep 4 (UNI) "Sanskriti", the Hindi magazine brought out by the Culture Ministry, has been adjudged the best non-commercial periodical by the Hindi Akademi of Delhi.

This was announced by Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni at a meeting of the Rajbhasha Advisory Commiittee here today.

Presiding over the meeting, Ms Soni said Hindi is an integral part of the Indian culture and, therefore, the Culture Ministry has a special responsibility in this regard.

''My personal view is that we should make use of simple spoken Hindi in our official work,'' she suggested.

The minister also clarified that the official language policy of the Government is not that of forcing Hindi upon anybody but to propagate it in a cordial atmosphere by encouraging and motivating people to use it in their day-to-day work.

She said that during the last one year the ministry had organised a number of seminars in Hindi on subjects like the Indian Constitution, Relevance of Art Forms in the context of globalisation and Hindi and mass awareness programme of Mahatma Gandhi.

''There is a proposal to publish the proceedings of the seminar in book forms so that they may serve as important research and reference materials for researchers and scholars,'' she said.

The ministry had also organised a number of programames in various parts of the country in connection with the 125th anniversary of great Hindi novelist and story-writer Munshi Prem Chand, she added.

The Members of the Committee gave a number of suggestions for propagation of Hindi. One suggestion was to organise competitions in Hindi in different subjects in non-speaking Hindi states.

It was also suggested that competitions could also be organised in Delhi for the students coming for studies from non-Hindi speaking regions.

Efforts should also be made to organise exhibitions, both within and outside the country, some members suggested.

Prof. Chandra Kumar, Kirip Chaliha, Harendra Singh Malik, Baleshwar Yadav (all MPs) and a number of scholars, eminent literary personalities and senior officers took part in the meeting.

UNI/SKS SY RS1858