By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 31: Assembly Speaker Thomas A Sangma and NPP’s Lok Sabha member from Tura, Agatha Sangma will lead a team of leaders from the Garo Hills region to meet with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on November 3 to press for inclusion of Garo in the list of 38 languages that are hoping to be added to the Eighth Schedule.
“We are going to meet him (shah) on November 3. We have scheduled a meeting with the Home Secretary already. I am going tomorrow and leaders from the Garo Literature Society are also coming,” NPP spokesperson and Cabinet Minister Marcuise Marak told The Shillong Times on Tuesday.
Recalling that attempts to meet the Home Minister in September had failed, Marak said, “Together with Agatha Sangma, Assembly Speaker Thomas Sangma and GLS, we will meet with the Home Minister to demand that Garo language be added to the list.”
The Centre appears to be considering the demand for inclusion of the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule but is apparently silent on a similar demand for the Garo language.
According to a notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs, there are demands for the inclusion of 38 languages, including Khasi, in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. There is no word about the Garo language.