03 Jul 2022  |   07:55am IST

Vasco citizens demand railway reservation forms in English & Hindi, not in Kannada

Team Herald


VASCO: A delegation of Murgaoncha Raja on Saturday submitted a memorandum to the South Western Railway (SWR) authorities demanding that the railway reservation forms be printed in English and Hindi and not in Kannada, which are being used presently.

After submitting the memorandum, member of the group, Xencor Polgi said that they were not against any regional language but were of the opinion that the central agencies like railways should use Hindi and not Kannada. He said that it has been tradition that all the departments of Government of India have been using English and Hindi, being national language. “Most of Goans do not read or write in Kannada,” he said, suggesting that the railways can use either Hindi or Konkani besides English.

Polgi said, "We noticed in the Vasco railway office that the reservation forms have been printed in English on front side and the same matter is translated and printed in Kannada on the back side of the form. We do not want to insult any regional language but we wonder why forms are not in our Konkani language. If they don’t want to use Konkani then they can at least use Hindi which is our national language or it can be in local language apart from English and Hindi.”

Polgi further sought to know whether there was “gag” in using local language or national language by the railways and appealed to elected representatives to take note of these happenings and to take up the matter before the SWR authorities and the Ministry of Railways.

Polgi said that Konkani is the Official Language of Goa and reservation forms should be printed in local language apart from English and Hindi. He appealed to the railways authorities not to play with sentiments of Goans and to respect all languages. He said that SWR having headquarters in Hubbali may be using Kannada but it cannot be “imposed” in Goa.


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar