Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and officials of the South Western Railway (SWR) have confirmed that the railway tickets in the state will soon be printed in Kannada. The officials said that the tickets will be available at railway counters in stations across Karnataka. The SWR, however, clarified the tickets booked online will not be available in Kannada language. This move by the central government has brought smiles on the face of those who were opposing the government’s Hindi imposition in Karnataka and other states of southern India. Piyush Goyal shared this improvement on his twitter handle with a photo of the ‘sample’ ticket.

His tweet reads, “Govt introduces Automatic Ticket Vending Machines at railway stations in Karnataka to reduce congestion at ticket counters. For convenience of commuters, tickets will also have info in Kannada.” The proposal to introduce Kannada language in the railway ticket was put during Indian Railways’ Passenger Amenities Committee meeting. The committee approved the proposal to print tickets in the local language in addition to English and Hindi and it was said to be implemented from January 2018.

A great news to all the Kannadigas!

Many states like Tamil Nadu have been demanding for the inclusion of local languages in the tickets and official forms for the past few years. There was a hashtag campaign on Twitter alleged Hindi imposition and to recognize Kannada—#ServeInMyLanguage.

Soon after Goyal’s tweet, many social media users and twitterati praised the decision of the central government. Here is one of the reaction tweeted by a user named Amarnath S.

Well, it is indeed a great step as the residents of Karnataka wait eagerly for the recognition of Kannada in the railway tickets.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 01, 2018 03:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).