Dy CM asks PM not to give equal status to Marathi in Goa

Panaji, Aug 4 (UNI) Goa Deputy Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC president Sonia Gandhi opposing the party State committee's move to accord official language status to Marathi at par with Konkani in Goa.

''The Goans will never accept this. Konkani is our language and Goa is our State. The matter of script does not arise because everybody can write Konkani in their own script,'' Dr de Souza, who is also the State Nationalist Congress Party president, said.

He also recalled how Goa was accorded the statehood in 1987 on linguistic basis. While Konkani was made the sole official language, a separate provision was inserted to maintain the interests of Marathi before the formation of the separate State, he said.

Providing the mediapersons with copies of the telegrams, sent by him separately to Dr Singh and Ms Gandhi, the DCM, however, maintained a neutral stand in the controversy of recognising Roman script Konkani as official script, at par with Devanagari script Konkani.

''You can use any script, but, we do not have any objection as long as you use Konkani language. The script does not matter. One can write Konkani even in Malayam, Kannada and Telugu,'' he said.

Incidentally, the Catholic church has been pleading with the Centre for declaring Roman Script Konkani at par with Devanagari script Konkani.

On the other hand, propagationists of Marathi are demanding the Government to give an equal status to it with Konkani, to preserve the pristine Marathi culture in the island State.

Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Ravi Naik and Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane are also planning to apprise the Prime Minister and the party high command with the controversy related to the language and the script, which is likely to become a key issue in the State elections in May next year.

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