Hyderabad, January 29: Mayor Mohd Majid Hussain is facing a peculiar problem. His mother tongue is Urdu. Being a student of English medium, he can probably manage in the language. But understanding Telugu has become pretty difficult for him.
With most citizens venting their problems in Telugu and the language becoming a major communication barrier, he is taking the help of his officer on special duty (OSD) to translate their grievances.
To overcome the language barrier, especially during council meetings where majority of corporators speak in Telugu, Hussain has asked Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) commissioner MT Krishna Babu to provide voice conversion system to translate Telugu to Urdu and vice versa simultaneously.
The commissioner has directed the engineering wing to provide the facility at the GHMC council hall for the benefit of mayor and other corporators. As per initial estimates, for wired technology, the equipment and arrangements cost would be about Rs 1.10 crore, while it would be Rs 86 lakh for wireless technology.
A simultaneous interpretation system is currently in place at the Assembly, Legislative Council, National Institute of Rural Development, National Police Academy, Hyderabad International Convention Centre, the chief minister’s chambers at the Secretariat, camp office and Jubilee Hall. In this system, speeches are translated into different languages simultaneously by interpreters. Participants can hear the speeches in the language of their choice with specially-designed headphones.
As of now, the corporation has two translators (an English to Urdu and English to Telugu) and two computer operators (Urdu and Telugu each). As they have experience only in translation of texts, the GHMC is planning to rope in Assembly interpreters as they have experience in translating proceedings in the House.
Former GHMC commissioner Sameer Sharma used to answer queries in Hindi, but the present commissioner, who is not well-versed with the national language, answers questions either in English or Telugu. Only if the corporators insist he tries to speak in Hindi.
Some additional commissioners have also similar languages problems. Officials claim the system would also be useful to officials when they speak or give replies in the council meetings.
When contacted, GHMC engineer-in-chief R Dhan Singh said they were in the process of procuring equipment and making arrangement for the simultaneous interpretation system.
With Times input