President bats for Hindi, vernacular languages on Hindi Day

New Delhi, Sept 14: Underling that language is a connecting medium between government and public, President

on Friday favoured use of

and other Indian languages in official works.

Addressing a function organised on the occasion of Hindi Day, Mukherjee said language helps in developing cooperation and accountability between government and common people.

"If we want our democracy to be strong and progressive, we should respect Hindi and regional languages in the working of Central and state governments, respectively," he said at a function where nearly 50 government departments were given awards for promotion of Hindi.

Mukherjee said language has an important role in democracy because it is a mode of communication between the government and people.

"This is why in our constitution Hindi has been given the status of national language for work at the Centre while regional languages were recognised for works in state governments," he said.

The President said unity in diversity is the unique feature of India and Hindi is the symbol of social and cultural unity.

Mukherjee said use of Hindi was increasing as the connecting language across the country and its promotion and use in working of government was very important.

"With the use of Hindi and regional languages, development projects undertaken by government can be taken to villages of our country," he said.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde also spoke on the occasion.

PTI