Bengaluru, March 17 (NationPress) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has expressed his grievances against the Railway Department for suddenly canceling promotion examinations for railway employees. This decision came after protests by Kannada organizations, which demanded the inclusion of an option to take the test in Kannada.

In his remarks, Siddaramaiah highlighted that the examinations set for promotions to 194 Goods Train Manager roles in the South Western Railway and 101 posts in the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) for the Hubballi division were scrapped at the last minute due to strong opposition from Kannada speakers and their advocacy groups.

He pointed out that this abrupt cancellation has left Kannada-speaking employees uncertain about their future.

The Chief Minister noted that thousands of railway employees had raised concerns regarding the lack of an option to write the examination in Kannada, but their peaceful protests and appeals seemed to have been overlooked by the Railway Department.

Siddaramaiah stated that the last-minute cancellation instigated confusion and placed Kannada employees in a precarious position. He emphasized that this situation could have been averted if the Railway Department had acknowledged the issue sooner and allowed candidates to take the exam in Kannada.

He criticized the Railway Department for failing to address the concerns of Kannada speakers and hastily canceling the examination after protests escalated, which he termed as condemnable.

Furthermore, Siddaramaiah accused the Central government of discriminating against Kannada job seekers in various exams due to their policy favoring Hindi.

The Chief Minister expressed his disappointment that such an issue arose even with a Kannadiga, V. Somanna, serving as Minister of State for Railways. He lamented that the Railway Department has adopted an anti-Kannada approach, causing injustice to Kannada speakers, even under a minister from Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah had hoped that Somanna would advocate for the rights of Kannada speakers and help resolve the ongoing issues. He also condemned the Centre's policy of restricting many examinations to only Hindi and English, describing it as a form of linguistic imposition.

He remarked that Kannadigas have suffered the consequences of the Central government's preference for Hindi, leading to neglect of regional languages like Kannada. He deemed the restriction of examinations to Hindi and English as unacceptable, as it primarily benefits Hindi-speaking regions.

The Chief Minister reiterated that India is a union of states largely based on linguistic diversity, and the imposition of one language over another is indefensible.

While expressing that Kannadigas do not oppose Hindi as a language, he made it clear that they will not tolerate its imposition over Kannada. He urged the Central government to ensure that Kannada-speaking candidates are not subjected to injustice in language-related matters in the future.

Siddaramaiah called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and provide strict directives to the relevant departments. He demanded that the canceled railway examinations be rescheduled at the earliest, allowing candidates the option to write them in Kannada.