PANAJI: The Goa government will write to the Bombay High Court to seek to list the Konkani language, in addition to English, as the official language to conduct court proceedings, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Friday.
In his address at the 8th International Hindi Conference held here, Sawant also said that promoting Hindi will not only make India even more united in its diversity, but also aid the country to emerge as Akhand Bharat.
"In Goa, only English was used for legislature language, it is now in English and Konkani. The Bombay High Court branch in Goa functions in English. When we go to the judiciary to seek justice, it should work in Konkani. It will be our endeavour to ensure that it should function in English as well as in Konkani. We will write to the High Court," the Chief Minister said. Konkani is the state's official language.
Underlining the importance of the Hindi language as far as the unity of the country is concerned, Sawant said: "We are united in diversity and Akhanda Bharat which we have been dreaming about, I will say that when we are speaking about Akhand Bharat.
"I will also say, 'Jaya hue balidan Mukherjee voh Kashmir hamara hai' and the dream has been made real by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To maintain this unity it is important to promote Hindi," he added.
The Chief Minister also said that Goa is a multilingual state, where different languages are used for different tasks.
"Goa is known for four languages. We speak in Konkani, we prefer to read Marathi newspapers, we prefer to watch films in Hindi and while writing, we prefer to use English. This is a state which is always known for four languages," the Chief Minister said.