Setting a record, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday spoke in ten languages in the House.
He spoke, though briefly, in Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu to inform the members that simultaneous interpretation service has now been made available for the members to speak in any of the 22 languages listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.
At the command of Naidu, who is an ardent advocate of speaking in mother tongue, Rajya Sabha Secretariat has made available interpretation facility for five more languages i.e. Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkani, Sindhi and Santhali.
For other 17 languages, Rajya Sabha already has interpreters for 12 languages and interpreters of Lok Sabha are made available for five other languages.
Naidu informed the members of the new Interpretation Service during the Zero Hour today.
The monsoon session, which concludes on August 10, will have 18 sittings amid much-expected drama in both the houses - Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.