GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Ministry of Human Resource Development
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION 

RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 547
ANSWERED ON JULY 14, 2014 

QUESTION
Shifting Of Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada (CESCK)

 547. SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR: 

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state;

 (a)   Whether the Ministry has received any proposals from the Karnataka Government to shift the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada (CESCK) functioning at Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), from Mysore to Bengaluru;

(b)   if so, the details thereof;

 (c)    the details of the States that have removed their respective language centres from the ambit of CIIL and are functioning autonomously and the grants are given to these autonomous centres; and

 (d)   the details of the documentation of the six mother tongues/languages of Karnataka namely, Asalaru, Siddi, Iruliga, Malaikudiya, Maratta and Tokri Koli?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI) 

(a) Yes Sir.

 (b) The State Government of Karnataka (Department of Kannada, Culture & Information) had written to this Ministry for according autonomous status and to locate the Centre of Classical Studies in Kannada at Bengaluru at par with the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) at Chennai. The Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka had also written a letter stating that the Government of Karnataka has already identified 3.00 acres of land in the Bangalore University Campus and the Government is willing to make available this land free of cost. The Government of Karnataka has now again written a letter on 2^nd July, 2014 stating that pending construction of a new complex, the Bangalore University has agreed to provide 3000 Sq. ft. space for starting the centre immediately.

(c) The Centre for Classical Tamil which was originally started In the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) at Mysore was shifted to Chennai on the request of the State Govt. of Tamil Nadu in the year 2008, and is now functioning from Chennai as the Central Institute for Classical Tamil. The details of the grants given to the Central Institute of Classical Tamil is as follows.

 (d) A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed on 12.04.2013 between the CIIL, Mysore and Karnataka State Tribal Research Institute (KSTRI), Mysore to conduct research on six selected tribal mother tongues/ language of Karnataka, namely Asalaru, Siddi, Iruliga, Malaikudiya, Maratha/ Maratta and Tokri Koli for a period of 12 months. The Pilot study in these six languages was undertaken and the report on the same has been submitted to KSTRI. The report contains the vocabulary items, ethnographic details of these tribes including their present status, education, profession, food and culture, dress, festivals, marriage and death ceremonies, nature of language maintenance and loss etc.