Fulfilling a long-pending demand of the people of coastal Karnataka, the government in its Mangaluru Cabinet meeting on Friday (September 18, 2026) decided to accord the additional official language status to Tulu language, widely spoken in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Making this announcement after the marathon three-hour Cabinet meeting at Praja Soudha, the district office complex here, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said the status would be applicable for administrative matters in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts while the respective district administrations would be the implementing agencies. The government would release ₹82 lakh annually for translation, training and language usage purposes, he added.

The Chief Minister said he would not comment on why earlier governments did not take this decision. “We do not do politics on sentiments, but on improving people’s life,” he said.

Supplementing his announcement, Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, who continued the briefing after Mr. Shivakumar left for Hebri, said the previous government had appointed a committee headed by educationist M. Mohan Alva to study and make recommendations on making Tulu an official language of the State. Though the committee had submitted a report, the government could not take a decision at that time.

The then Minister for Kannada and Culture V. Sunil Kumar, representing Karkala Assembly Constituency in the Tulu heartland, was instrumental in setting up the committee.

Mr. Shivakumar said the Cabinet also accorded in-principle approval to upgrade the Mangaluru Fisheries College as Fisheries University, duly enhancing the intake from the present 60 students to 200 students a year.

Mr. Parameshwara said a special officer would be appointed to upgrade the college as a university and an estimated ₹11 crore would be earmarked initially for the upgradation.

In all, the Cabinet approved expenditure/ investment proposals worth ₹32,611 crore, including ₹16,000 crore for rural development, the Chief Minister added.

Noting that there has been widespread demand from the residents of Dakshina Kannada district to rename it as Mangaluru district, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said the present name did not truly reflect the population even as the region was known as Mangaluru across the country and abroad.

Therefore, the Cabinet was in favour of renaming the district as Mangaluru and has decided to get feedback from the general public. A draft notification would immediately be published inviting suggestions/ objections from people within a month after which a suitable decision would be taken, Mr. Shivakumar said.