UT News Service | Shillong, Aug 22: The demand to include Khasi and Garo languages in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution is gathering dust, with no progress being visible or made known.
The Khasi Authors’ Society (KAS) which has been aggressively pursuing the issue is determined to take it up yet again with the Home Ministry, after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Member of the KAS, Raphael Warjri said that former Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh in March 2019 had communicated to KAS and informed that 38 pending languages including Khasi are under scrutiny for recognition as official languages of India.
He however accepted that political turmoil due to CAB and later CAA and thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic, had drastically affected the progress.
It may be mentioned that the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly had earlier passed an official resolution to include Khasi and Garo languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
Meanwhile, Education Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui said that the Ministry is examining the State resolution and assured that the State government will continue to raise the matter with the Union Government, till the time both languages are included in the 8th Schedule.
“The Chief Minister is also pursuing the issue continuously,” he added.
Rymbui reasoned that the Khasi language is spoken by around 14 lakh people, whereas the Garo language is spoken by around 10 lakh people and inclusion of both the languages would only help the two communities to grow in future.
NNN