Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The long-standing issue of Konkani in Roman script being granted “official status” was sharply rejected by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
The demand has gained momentum as several villages have passed gram sabha resolutions voicing the same, and it has been suggested that ‘politics’ is the driving force behind the demand and the division of the community.
The demand is being made purely for political purposes. While claiming that the BJP government started funding the Dalgado Konkani Academy, which promotes Romi Konkani, Sawant stated, “There is no genuine love for the language.”
“The Dalgado Konkani Academy first received funding from the Manohar Parrikar-led Bharatiya Janata Party administration. They never received assistance from Congress regimes,” Sawant remarked.
During the discussion of the demands for funding related to the Department of Official Language, Cruz Silva, an MLA from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Velim, and other MLAs expressed the desire for “Romi Konkani” to have official status. The chief minister was reacting to these demands.
According to Sawant, the only reason it is being raised is political. In the past, a number of previous lawmakers would only bring up the demand when they were in the opposition, but they forgot about the Romi Konkani demand when they became ministers or even chief ministers.
Sawant added that the demand was also made in a 1990s writ case that was denied by the High Court.
MLA Cruz Silva claimed that Romi Konkani should have the same official status as Devanagari Konkani in order to address what he saw as unfairness. In addition, Silva emphasized that the Official Language Act’s advisory board has been dormant for the past five years and demanded that the Act be amended to incorporate Romi Konkani.
Venzy Veigas endorsed this idea, arguing that Konkani should be required for government job recruitments and highlighting the necessity of implementing the Official Language Act.
