Meghalaya govt working for inclusion of Khasi, Garo languages in 8th schedule – CM

Shillong, Sep. 14 (PTI): The Meghalaya government will move an official resolution to get Khasi and Garo languages, spoken by the dominant tribals in the state, included in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution.

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said they are making an earnest efforts in this regard.

We are working on it. I hope we will be able to bring it in the assembly, he told PTI.

The Meghalaya Language Act, 2005, recognises Khasi and Garo as the states associate official languages.

Earlier in the week, assembly speaker Donkupar Roy had told the Khasi authors that he strongly advocated the inclusion of Khasi in the Schedule.

In Meghalaya and neighbouring Assam, over 14.3 lakh people speaks Khasi, according to Census 2011.

This included 10.3 lakh who declared Khasi as their mother tongue, and the rest declared Pnar/Synteng, War and Lyngngam as their mother tongue.

At present, Khasi is one among the 99 non-scheduled languages in Part B of the Schedule as mentioned in the Census report of 2011.

The list of 99 non-scheduled languages also includes Mao, a language spoken by more than 10,000 people in Manipur and Nagaland.