A delegation of the Khasi Author Society (KAS) on Monday demanded the state government to make Khasi as one of the official languages of Megahalaya.
After meeting with the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, KAS president Dr DRL Nonglait said, “As of now, after the Meghalaya Language Act, 2005 the Khasi and Garo language have been made associate official languages only. But we want the government to make Khasi as one of the official languages of Meghalaya I mean together with English.”
“The chief minister has assured us to look into it very carefully and he has also entrusted the department concerned to look into it and to brief him about the details of the existing Act and also provisions made in the Indian constitution in regards to making any language as one of the associate official languages,” he said adding “Actually there is no bar to have two or three official languages within the State as
the Constitution allows any state to adopt that policy.”
He said that the State has to convene a special session because it has to bring an amendment of the existing Meghalaya Language Act, 2005.
“He (CM) has given us the assurance that he would look into the matter carefully and in due course of time he will do the needful,” Nonglait added.
To a question, the KAS president said, “In the Act, it has been defined that Khasi language can be used in all official correspondences within the jurisdiction of Khasi, Jaintia and Ri Bhoi and Garo language within the district of Garo Hills but in reality that is not the case so the use of these associate official languages have been very limited. Now, by making these as official languages of the state then you will understand the implication.”
On the use of Khasi language in the Assembly, Nonglait said, “In our discussion with the CM he said that is not a big problem.”
Further, KAS has also sought the CM’s intervention in regards to the demand for inclusion of Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule.
“We informed him that on September 29 and 30, we had a national seminar in New Delhi and we also had a peaceful demonstration at Jantar Mantar.
We have adopted resolutions which include to seek clarification from the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the status of our demand and to urge the central government to initiate steps for introducing an official Bill in the next session of the parliament thereby to facilitate for inclusion of Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.
We have also informed him that we have submitted our memorandum to the prime minister, union home minister and president of India. We requested the chief minister to write a follow up letter to the Centre for bringing an official Bill for inclusion of the Khasi language in the next session of parliament,” he said.
Nonglait said that the CM has even sought our cooperation in preparing the follow up letter and will send to the Prime Minister or Home Minister of India.
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