MARGAO: The State Minister for Art and Culture, Govind Gawde, on Sunday asserted that Konkani is the mother tongue of Goa and that the government wants to take all the people along.

Gawde was speaking at an award distribution function organised by Dalgado Konknni Akademi (DKA), at Margao.

“Just as it take two palms to clap, Konkani in Devnagiri script and Roman script have to progress together to make Konkani a strong language not only in Goa but worldwide where Goans have settled now,” he said.

Acknowledging that writers have given a good direction through their thoughts, he said, it was for the government and the present generation to nurture the language. He clarified that just because Konkani in Devnagiri script is given legal sanction for use in administration, it does not mean that the Roman script is sidelined or neglected.

The Dalgado Konknni Akademi presented five awards to people for their contribution to Konkani and Goan culture. 

The Dalgado Literary Award was presented to Jess Fernandes, who has written 33 books of which 29 are in Roman script while three are in Devnagiri script and one in English. He has also written three plays, 10 khell tiatrs, 11 tiatrs and 14 one act plays. Jess has also written 15 mando and dulpods, 30 folk songs and 30 songs and duets.

The Dalgado Service to Konkani Award was presented to former president of the DKA Premnanand Lotlikar who served the organisation for nine consecutive years as a president during which period not only did he improve the financial condition of DKA but also got a very comfortable premises through the help of the government and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in particular. 

Besides, Premanand is a well known tiatrist having acted in over 100 tiatrs, written and produced seven tiatrs besides also serving his village Benaulim as a panchayat member.

The Dalgado Cultural Award was presented to John Claro Fernandes who is a famous playwright and a writer. His tiatr ‘Portugez Kolvont’ has created a record of having over 200 shows and was the first to have 100 consecutive shows. He has written around 15 tiatrs besides being a regular contributor to various publications in Goa. In fact it was John Claro who unearthed the fact that ‘Italian Bhurgo” was the first Konkani tiatr staged.

Well known designer, choreographer and organizer Lourence Fernandes was presented with the Joel D’Souza Heritage Award in recognition of him presenting Goan art and culture at various occasions to foreign and national leaders visiting Goa. Besides, he also presented Goan culture at the Republic Day parade and also the Goa Day celebrations held in Delhi and also at Mauritius, Dubai, Sarjah and Kenya.

Goa Chitra was presented the Dalgado Organisation Award for its great work in showing the world the true Goan world as it was before and now. Goa Chitra museum at Benaulim besides exposing the tourists to what is Goa and Goan also educates Goan children on this through the over 5000 artefacts that are there at the museum.

The Fr Freddy J Da Costa Journalistic Award was presented to Michael Gracias who writes regularly for Goan publications on tiatr and its artistes besides anchoring programmes on tiatr for Doordarshan. Besides, he has been editing and publishing Jivit, the Konkani magazine since 2006. Michael is also a good actor having acted in many tiatrs, written 27 tiatr, 250 songs and three books in Konkani.