Seraulim villagers demand Roman script for Konkani

Margao: Staunch opposition against organising the Sunburn electronic dance music (EDM) festival in South Goa and demand for recognition of Konkani in Roman script in the state’s Official Language Act, dominated the proceedings of Seraulim gram sabha held on Sunday.

The gram sabha passed a resolution urging the Linguistic Minority Commission of India, New Delhi, “to stop the discrimination done to the Roman script by granting official status to Roman Konkani along with Devanagari by amending the Official Language Act.”

The Roman script Konkani lovers have recently formed a Global Konkani Forum in furtherance of their cause.

The resolution stated that the Official Language Act was considered the “biggest betrayal of the people’s wishes, especially of the Catholic minority community who participated in the language agitation for Konkani to be made the state’s official language.”

It further states that the Global Konkani Forum would approach the Linguistic Minority Commission of India.

The gram sabha further passed a resolution rejecting the Sunburn festival in South Goa.

There’s been a groundswell of opposition against Sunburn in South Goa ever since Sunburn announced that it would shift the festival venue to South Goa. Several gram sabhas have adopted resolutions against the EDM festival. Velim MLA Cruz Silva and Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas have also voiced their disapproval of Sunburn.