Drawing a firm line over the State’s linguistic policy, 37 Goan cultural and language organisations passed a unanimous resolution de manding the State govern ment not to entertain the plea to grant Marathi the status of an official lan guage—similar to Konka ni—and strictly to refrain from amending the Offi cial Languages Act under any pressure. At a crucial meeting at the Konkani Bhasha Mandal, Margao presided over by All India Konka ni Parishad President Fr Mouzinho de Ataide, rep resentatives mapped out new strategic initiatives to defend and propagate Konkani across education, employment, and culture.
Speaking on the occa sion, former MLA Uday Bhembre informed the gathering that the sole criterion applied when granting a language the status of an official lan guage is whether or not it is spoken by the majority of the population within that specific state. He emphasised that, in the context of Goa, this criterion applies compre hensively only to Konka ni; this is the very reason Konkani alone became the official language of Goa. It was also decided that a delegation would meet with the Chief Minister to convey the collective views of the Konkani or ganisations’ representa tives. Presiding over the meet ing Parishad’s president, Fr Mouzinho de Ataide delivered the introductory remarks, while the Parish ad’s Working President, Chetan Acharya proposed a vote of thanks.
