Shillong, Jan 06: A delegation of seven members led by its President, Prof. D.R.L Nonglait along with Meghalaya Minister, A.L. Hek, met Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju at his residence in New Delhi recently.

A memorandum of 7 pages which reflects the features and status of Khasi language was submitted to the Minister on January 3 requesting him to initiate necessary steps to include the Khasi Language in the 8th Scheduled of the Constitution of India.

The Minister said that experts will look into the merit of Khasi language, as there are now 38 languages, in which Khasi is one of them pending for inclusion in the said schedule.

He also said that views and communication by the Central Institute of Indian Language (CIIL) and the Union Public Service e Commission (UPSC) will be taken into consideration.

The delegation informed the Minister that there will be no dearth of subjects in the UPSC examinations as there are 54 colleges in Meghalaya which offer Khasi upto the Honours level.

Besides, the Department of Khasi at the North Eastern Hills University, Shillong also offers Khasi as a subject upto the Ph.D degree.

On Saturday, the delegation led by Prof. Nonglait met Rajnath Singh, informing him that the Meghalaya Government has sent its proposal for inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the 8th Scheduled of the Constitution of India.

In support of the Government’s proposal, The KAS submitted its representation to the Home Minister.

In his prompt response to the KAS delegation, Rajnath Singh said that he has already discussed about the matter with the Prime Minister.

The KAS members insisted upon the Minister to consider the non scheduled languages such as Bhojpuri, Rajastahani, Bhoti, Khasi and a few others for inclusion in the 8th Schedule of the constitution of India at the earliest.