26 Jun 2024  |   12:13am IST

Global Konknni Forum demand official status for Romi Script, along with Devnagari

Team Herald

PANJIM:

Romi Konkani writers and tiatrists under the banner of the newly formed

Global Konknni Forum have demanded official status for Romi Script, along with Devnagari. They said that tiatr in Romi Konkani has celebrated 125 years recently. It is not only a question of script but an entire culture and livelihood.

If Romi script is also recognized as the officials script many would get benefits. They felt that they had been betrayed after the Konkani agitation, when the official language act was draft and Romi script was not given official status.

The Global Konknni Forum (GKF) is a newly formed group committed to fight for Roman Script to be included in the Official Language Act (OLA) along with Devnagari. It’s omission in the OLA, is considered as the greatest betrayal of the peoples wishes,  who fought and died to make Konknni language as Official Language of Goa, a press release said.

It has been 36 long years, that Roman Script has suffered  great injustice and discrimination, from subsequent governments that came into power. Many promises and lollipops were assured from time to time, but were never delivered.

The Official Language Act specifies, that the Govt will notify, the date from which Konknni, will be used for which official purpose. But for the last 25 years, not a single notification has appeared in this regard. So was the OLA drafted only to discriminate Konknni in Roman Script? We seek answers from the govt.

Global Konkani Forum (GKF) places the following demands before the BJP Govt, with an appeal to implement these promises and recommendations at the earliest.

1.        In September 2008, the Advisory Board of the Official Language Cell of the Govt of Goa, recommended the use of Konknni in Roman Script in Govt offices. As per the recommendation, Konknni in Roman Script would be permitted for communication purposes, and govt employees may submit applications, appeals, or representations, and receive orders or notices in Roman Script. However, at present this is possible in Konknni in Devnagari script and in Marathi only. Why is this recommendation of the Advisory Board of the Official Language Cell not implemented in the state of Goa ?

 GKF demands that the recommendations of the Advisory Board of the Official Language Cell must be implemented with immediate effect in all Govt offices.

2.        In 2012, the former Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar, announced that he would fulfill four demands of the Dalgado Konknni Academy. One of the four demands was that Konkanni in Roman Script, was to be introduced in all Schools from Std 1 to 12th. Why was this promise of the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar given to the people not fulfilled or implemented? 

 Global Konkani Forum ( GKG) demands that the BJP govt in Goa fulfils the promise made by late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar that Konknni in Roman Script to be introduced in schools from Std 1 to 12th, by next year.

3.Discrimination of  Roman Script

Under Linguistic Minorities Commission of India, Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution provides safe guards to linguistic protection of the minorities, as their fundamental right. Under Article 29 (1) of the Constitution, we are alleging, script based discrimination of  the Konknni language, as the Official Language Act (OLA) of Goa recognizes only Devnagari as the official script of Konknni.