Vani Jairam regales rly staff, lauds effort to promote Hindi

CHENNAI: More than 600 workers took time off to listen to Vani Jairam sing Bole re papihara' to mark Rajbhasha Week celebrations at Southern Railway workshop in Perambur.
The event saw competitions and skits organised by staff associations at the workshop. Superintendent of wagon works A Srinivasan said 14 competitions that tested the Hindi language usage skills of employees were held."These included essays for those who could write the language well, handwriting tests and vocabulary tests for those who are learning the language."
Vani Jairam, who has sung both for Hindi and Tamil films, lauded the efforts of the Railways to promote the national language in the state. Jairam made her debut as a playback singer with Hindi film Guddi in 1971; two years later, she got her first break as a singer for a Tamil movie.
In addition to the celebration, the Perambur workshop also kicked off a 20-day special drive to promote the national language. "Employees will be encouraged to do their day-to-day works in Hindi along with English. Routine letters and other communications will be done in the national language so that they will be able to practice the language," Srinivasan added.
Southern Railway official Priamvada Viswanathan said such efforts were rare even in non-Hindi speaking states in north India.