NEW DELHI, Aug 14: There have been demands for inclusion of 38 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
In a written reply, Minister of State for Home R P N Singh said there were 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule while initially there were only 14 languages.
These languages were Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
He said no set criteria had been specified for considering proposals for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule.
He said the languages, the people were demanding for inclusion in the Schedule, included Angika, Banjara, Bhojpuri, Bhoti, Bundelkhandi, Chhatisgarhi, Dhatki, English, Garhwali, Gondi, Gujjari, Ho, Kamtapuri, Karbi, Khasi, Kurmali, Lepcha, Nagpuri, Mabhai, Mizo, Limbu, Nicobarese, Pahari, Pali, Rajasthani, Kosali, Siraiki, Tenydi and Tulu.
(UNI)