‘Follow up with Centre on language recognition’

SHILLONG, Aug 9: The Khasi Authors’ Society (KAS) on Wednesday called on the state government to rigorously follow up with the Centre on the long-pending demand for inclusion of the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Speaking to a section of the media, KAS president DRL Nonglait said the state government can put pressure the Centre to prepare a bill for amending the Eighth Schedule in order to fulfil this long-pending demand.
Dr Nonglait also stated that the KAS has been rigorously following up on the issue with the Centre.
“We had first submitted a memorandum to former Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh in this regard. We received communication from the ministry that this demand has been listed. We were told that there are 38 pending demands for inclusion of languages in the Eighth Schedule. Now the ball is in the Centre’s court,” the KAS president said.
He also said that members of the society would visit Delhi in the last week of September or the first week of October to follow up on their demand.
“We had submitted two memorandums in 2021 to Union Home Minister, Amit Shah. But no fresh communication has been received from the ministry. We think it is better that we go to Delhi and find out the status of our demand,” he said.
Dr Nonglait also recalled that the language recognition issue gained momentum only in 2017 and 2018 after the KAS took to the streets to press for their demand.
“Our movement compelled the government to adopt a resolution to urge the Centre to initiate steps for inclusion of Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule,” he added.