JKS fights against attempt to destroy script variety in Konkani'

[email protected] (CD Network)
June 30, 2012

Mangalore, June 30: Jagotik Konkani Songhotton has condemned the move of Karnataka State Konkani Linguistic Minorities Institutions (KSKLMI), which had recently raised voice against considering Konkani works written in scripts other than 'Devanagari' for Central Sahitya Akademi awards.

Addressing a press meet here on Saturday, Eric Ozario, General Secretary, JKS, lamented that despite the fact that Devanagari is only the third most prolific script, after Kannada and Roman scripts, the Akademi has been squarely ignoring and neglecting Konkani literature in other scripts.

“Though Konkani is written in five different scripts, namely – Kannada, Roman, Devanagari, Perso-Arabic and Malayalam – the Sahitya Akademi (Central), since the very beginning, has been conferring Awards, Assignments and Projects only to the literature in the Devanagari script”, he said.

jks

Mr Ozario, said that he himself along with two others (Vally Vagga, Mysore and Marcel D'souza, Mangalore) on behalf of all Konkanis had approached High Court of Karnataka with a writ petition demanding the Court to issue a direction to the Sahitya Akademi to recognise all the five scripts of Konkani Language viz., Kannada, Roman (English), Devanagari, Arabic and Malayalam as eligible for grant of Awards, Research funding and all other incidental works, for which assistance is rendered by the Akademi.

He said while the High Court was considering this petition, the KSKLMI pleaded the same Court to consider 'only Devanagari for recognition'. Together, they have issued a press statement with false information. Their statements claim that 1) 'Devanagari is the official script of Konkani', 2) 'The Constitution has given prominence to the Devanagari script', 3)'Konkanis use only the Devanagari script and not Kannada or Malayalam', and 4) 'If any script other than Devanagari is recognised, it will be detrimental to Konkani Langauage'

Brushing aside all these four claims, Mr Ozario questioned how does Devanagari become the official script, just because the Devanagari lobby declares so? “Such a decision has to be taken in a democratic process, at an assembly of representatives of all scripts. Such an assembly has never been convened in Konkani, he said.

“Moreover, this is not a question of the 'Official script'. The Question is whether the Sahitya Akademi's mandate is to honour and support the 'literature' of a language or the 'script' of a language. If it is literature, then how can the Akademi pamper and patronize the literature in one script alone and completely ignore and disregard the literature in other scripts?” he questioned.

He also clarified that Constitution has never given prominence to Devanagari script over other scripts.

“In its reply to our petition the Sahitya Akademi itself has admitted to the Court that 'the mandate of the Akademi is fully to recognise and support the literary traditions of the given language. The literary traditions of Konkani being that it is in five scripts, the Akademi has no option but to recognize and support literature in all five scripts”, he said.

Stating that Konkanis are confined to Devanagari script, he said that the truth is – according to the 2001 Census, of the total Konkanis in India, 31.82% Konkanis live in Goa. 31.73% live in Karnataka. All Konkanis living in Karnataka read and write Konkani in the Kannada script. Goa is divided between Roman and Devanagari. A Study conducted in 2011 reveals that only 12.7% Konkanis in India use Devanagari script; the remaining 87.3% use other scripts. The use of Kannada script is the highest – 58%, he said.

However, Mr Ozario clarified that JKS is not fighting agaginst Devanagari. “We are not demanding that Devanagari be neglected. Our demand is that the other four scripts also be considered”, he said.

“Their attempt is to destroy all script variety in Konkani and impose their variety on everyone. This is detrimental to the unity and development of Konkani. We condemn this and seek legal remedies”, he said.

KK Utharan, Vice President (India) JKS, Dr. Pratapananda Naik, Linguist, Goa and Vally Vagga (Valerian Dsouza), writer, Mysore were also present in the press meet.


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News Network
July 13,2020

Bengaluru, July 13: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday made it clear that the government had no plans to extend the lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts beyond July 22.  The two districts will enter a lockdown starting 8 pm on July 14. 

“There is no proposal before the government to extend the lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts. The chief minister requests citizens not to panic and cooperate with the government without paying heed to rumours,” the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. 

“The lockdown is being imposed to control the rising number of Covid-19 cases in these districts. The CM has instructed officials to make all arrangements in a week’s time and make ready whatever is necessary,” the CMO said. 

The clarification came after Yediyurappa chaired a meeting of the Covid-19 task force meeting. Yediyurappa also held a video conference with officials from all districts to review the Covid-19 situation, rainfall and irrigation measures. 

Two more districts - Dakshina Kannada and Dharwad - have decided to impose a lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19 following Yediyurappa’s video conference. Starting July 15, Dakshina Kannada will be under a lockdown for a week whereas it will be a 9-day lockdown in Dharwad. 

During his video conference, Yediyurappa noted that the number of cases was on the rise in Bengaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Dharwad, Ballari, Udupi and Kalaburagi. 

He further noted that Covid-19 fatalities were going up in Bidar, Dharwad, Gadag and Mysuru. He asked authorities to bring this under control. “Bidar is among five districts nationally when it comes to deaths. This has to be controlled,” Yediyurappa said, seeking a report by experts on this. 

Yediyurappa told authorities to prioritize rapid antigen tests. “One lakh test kits have been procured. Use them wisely in emergency cases,” the CM said. He ordered that those aged above 60 years, those with serious illnesses and showing symptoms of influenza-like illness (ILI) have to be identified and subjected to Covid-19 tests.  

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News Network
January 25,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 25: Several women have completed a 24-hour protest here against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and are going strong to stretch it to 48 hours.

"More than a thousand women gathered on the Masjid Road at Frazer Town to denounce the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC)," participant and Mount Carmel College student Noor Zahira told IANS.

The women protesters extended their support to the students in Jamia Millia Islamia, the Aligarh Muslim University, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and others who were recently roughed up allegedly by police and masked goons.

Zahira, 20, said the women's protest was planned only for 24 hours but is continuing to touch 48 hours.

Starting 3pm on Thursday, the women, several of them in burqas, niqabs and hijabs, are sitting on the road just outside the Haji Sait mosque in Frazer Town in a flash protest. Though they have informed the police, they did not wait for the permission. Around 11 pm, police arrived and shut off the protesters' loud speakers.

Zahira said already four such women's anti-CAA protests were taken out in Bengaluru. Women from all ages groups have joined the protest and are sloganeering.

As the women are protesting on the road, men are guarding them standing on the opposite road, ensuring all supplies such as food and others to them, she added.

"Muslim women were not alone in denouncing the CAA... we were joined by the transgenders, Hindu women, Christian women, Dalits and others, " she said.

Some of the protesters also indulged in creative work such as composing songs against the CAA and making placards.

Though four anti-CAA women's protests happened at the Town Hall and other landmarks in Bengaluru, they were only a few hours long.

The protesting women are also showing support to women protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi who were accused of demonstrating for Rs 500. However, the protest did not align anti-CAA demonstration with any political party, keeping it apolitical.

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News Network
April 13,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 12: A 70-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 got discharged from a hospital here on Sunday after she recovered from the novel coronavirus, said Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner, Sindu B Rupesh.

Seven other patients have also recovered and discharged in Dakshina Kannada till date. Total number of active cases in the district has decreased to 5 now.

As many as 232 COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in Karnataka till date.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India on Sunday climbed to 8447, including 764 cured and discharged, 1 migrated and 273 deaths, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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