THOMAS STEPHENS KONKNNI KENDR B. B. Borkar Road, Alto Porvorim Goa - 403 521, INDIA. (0832) 2415857, 2415864 e-mail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website:www.tskk.org
21 July 2006 Sir, Kindly give publicity to the following press release. Thanking you, Dr. Pratap Naik, S.J. Director Roman script issue: May become a boon or curse for Congress Party A Delegation of representatives of various organizations which are demanding an amendment to the Goa Official Language Act 1987 to include Roman script in the Act met General Secretary of All India Congress Committee and in charge of Goa Desk Mrs. Margaret Alva at the Congress Bhavan on 21 July 2006 at 1.00 p.m. The delegation consists of Wilson Mazarello, the president of Dalgado Konknni Akademi; Prince Jacob, the convenor of Tiatr Akademi; Dr. Pratap Naik, S.J. Director of Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr; M.K. Jos, the spokesperson of All Goa Citizens' Committee for Social Justice and Action; Goa Shahir Ulhas Buyao, the veteran singer; Sharon Mazarello, well known actress and singer; Floriano Fernandes, Convenor of Civic Consumers' Forum, Merces; Salvadore Fernandes, Konknni journalist and Miguel Braganza, net journalist. The delegation submitted a memorandum to Mrs. Alva and asked her to pass the Amendment Bill during the Current Assembly Session to include Roman script in the Language Act. The delegation pointed out to her that the Congress Party was responsible to pass the Language Act in 1987. At that time the people who supported, fought and died for Konknni were under the impression that Konknni in Roman script would become the State Language of Goa. But proponents of Devanagari script with the active support of a few politicians deceived the common man by making the Konknni dialect of 1.5% people the State Language of Goa. The delegation further gave proof that the Konknni in Devanagari script is artificially kept alive by govt. grants and support. Neither the majority community nor the minority community has accepted this Konknni dialect. Besides, this Konknni has divided the Goan population and suppressed their natural right. The present Congress government must rectify this historical manipulation and injustice. If it is not done then the congress party will be taught the right lesson by users of Roman script and their supporters. The delegation has told Mrs. Alva in clear terms that the Congress Party cannot take Roman script supporters and tiatrists for a ride during the coming election. The delegation informed Mrs. Alva that local Congress MLAs are shirking their responsibility by shifting their responsibility on the high command of their party. If the present congress led Govt. does not amend the Language Act to include the Roman script during the current Assembly Session then they are forced to consider Congress Party as Anti Roman script and not to support them during the coming election. Mrs. Margaret was not ready to give any definite assurance but she has promised the delegation that she will raise the issue before the Congress MLAs on later today. She said that this script issue has to be solved by the local govt. for which there is no need of any high command order. Meanwhile tiatrists will meet at Margao to plan further course of action. Supporters of Roman script are determined with single-minded goal to put an end to language and script controversy to Konknni. On 21 July 1969 for the first time man landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first man to set his foot on the moon. Roman script supporters are hoping that on this historical day the Congress Party might take another historical decision in the right direction. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
