SHILLONG: The Opposition has slammed the State Government for not pressuring the Centre for inclusion of the Khasi and Garo language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
While moving the motion to resolve the inclusion of the Khasi and Garo Language in the Eighth Scheduled, Sohra legislator Titostarwell Chyne said that it is really sad that the Government has not taken any initiative to fight for the inclusion of the Khasi and Garo language in the Eighth Schedule.
“The Government had passed the Meghalaya Language Act, 2005 to make the Khasi and Garo language as the official language of the State. But sadly the Government has not done anything to press for the inclusion of these languages in the Eight Schedule,” Chyne said.
According to him, by getting the two languages recognised, youths will benefit from the job opportunities and many prominent writers who missed the opportunity to be bestowed with the Sahitya Akademi awards would find their names in the list.
Referring to an examination conducted by the Staff Selection Commission in 2013 where there are vacancies for PEX and TREX in the Prasar Bharati Chyne said, “Our youths missed the opportunity because they were asked to write the second paper in Hindi and this is a disadvantage.”
Chyne said Khasi language was recognized by the Calcutta University in 1900 and even by the Gauhati University in 1948.
Legislator James K Sangma on the other hand pointed out that the government failed to send proposals to the centre for its consideration on recognising the two languages. He said that while non-governmental organisations have taken the issue seriously by sending memorandums the state government has not taken any initiative even as there are no set guidelines required to get Khasi and Garo languages included.
Pointing out that there are 22 recognized languages in the 8th Schedule Sangma said that only three languages from the North East are recognized.
He said that Garo language is used by a sizeable population even in Tripura, Nagaland, Assam and West Bengal.
Opposition leader Dr Donkupar Roy referred to the statement made in the Parliament in March 2012, when the minister in charge home affairs informed that only eight state governments have sent their proposals to include some languages in the 8thSchedule and Meghalaya government did not make any proposal.
“Since there are is no criteria to get our languages included the option is to put pressure on the centre and we have to use our political links to ensure that the centre listens to us,” Roy said and suggested that the government could form a committee to convince inclusion of the languages.
Replying to the motion, the chief minister said that the government has pursued with the matter and had also sent its proposal on October 7, 2013 after a letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs reached the state.
He said that the government had given details of the languages used in the state and the government will take appropriate measure to get Khasi and Garo languages recognized.
“I assure you that we have been pursuing it and we will continue to do so,” he added.
