MARGAO: The demand for equal status for Konkani in Roman script gained momentum as several village panchayats, including Cana-Benaulim, Ambelim, Velsao Pale, Telaulim, Velim, Cansaulim and Panchwadi, on Sunday passed resolutions at the gram sabhas, seeking official recognition to the Roman script in the Official Language Act.
Speaking to mediapersons, Rudolf Barreto, a villager and staunch advocate for Konkani in the Roman script, said that the Cana-Benaulim gram sabha had unanimously passed a resolution specifically demanding equal status to Roman script within the framework of the Official Language Act.
“A great injustice was done to the community using the Roman script at the time of the official language act, despite knowing the real facts,” Barreto said.
Anthony D’Silva, a social activist and supporter of Konkani, emphasised that their advocacy for equal status for the Roman script is firmly rooted in legal principles.
He clarified that their objective is not to seek preferential treatment but to ensure that the Roman script receives fair and equal recognition as mandated by law.
“It is a language spoken by the minorities in Goa. There are also several individuals from the majority community who use the Roman script. Therefore, our Ambelim panchayat has unanimously resolved to demand equal status,” D’Silva added.
In the proposal of all the gram sabhas, it has been stated that the omission of Roman Script in the Official Language Act, is considered as the greatest betrayal of the peoples’ wishes, specially the Catholic minority community, which fought to make Konkani as Official Language of Goa, during the time of the Konkani language agitation of 1987.
“It has been 37 long years since the Roman Script has suffered great injustice and discrimination from subsequent governments that came into power. Successive governments from 1987 are responsible for this divide and injustice to Roman Script, and they don’t have the inclination to amend the Official Language Act, to make Roman Script the official script of Konkani along with Devanagari,” it stated.
The village panchayats have also resolved to write to the Linguistic Minorities Commission of India on the demand by stating that Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution provides safeguards to linguistic protection of the minorities, as their fundamental right.
It is alleged that under Article 29 (1) of the Constitution, there is a script-based discrimination of the Konkani language, as the Official Language Act of Goa recognises only Devnagari as the official Konkani script, and has discarded Roman Script, which is mostly used by the minority Catholic community of our villages and Goa.
