Himachal Pradesh assembly passes a Bill to make Sanskrit 2nd official language of state

On February 16, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly passed a Bill to make Sanskrit as the second official language of the state. The Himachal Pradesh Official Language Bill, 2019 (Amendment) was introduced by Irrigation and Public Health Minister Mahender Singh Thakur in the ongoing budget session. The bill was passed without any discussion. The first official language of Himachal is Hindi. The state’s name was coined from the Sanskrit—Him means ‘snow’ and achal means ‘land’ or ‘abode’—by Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma, one of the state’s eminent Sanskrit scholars. According to a survey of CMS – India Corruption Study 2017, Himachal Pradesh is India’s least corrupt state.