PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Monday said his government would revive its long-pending demand for inclusion of Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, so that it can be accorded the status of an official language.
"We have been demanding official language status to Bhojpuri for several years. The state cabinet had sent a proposal to the Centre in this regard in 2017."
"We will soon revive this demand for the inclusion of Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution," Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of his 'Janata ke Darbar Mein Mukhyamantri' programme here.
The chief minister's comments came on the occasion of International Mother Language Day on Monday.
Kumar also slammed the Jharkhand government for its recent decision to withdraw Bhojpuri and Magahi from the list of regional languages of Dhanbad and Bokaro districts.
"This decision is wrong and very damaging. Bihar and Jharkhand were together before bifurcation (in 2000). Bhojpuri and Magahi are the languages of both the states, and spoken in border areas," he said.
The Jharkhand government on Friday withdrew Bhojpuri and Maghi from the list of regional languages of the two districts amid widespread protests.