'Mother language, script and cultural heritages should be kept alive'

Hetauda –Province 3 Chief Minister Dormani Poudel has said the youths should be made responsible for keeping alive the mother tongue, scripts and the cultural heritages of various ethnic groups, caste and communities that are on the verge of disappearance. 

CM Poudel said this while inaugurating the province-level language symposium organised jointly by the Province 3 Ministry of Social Development and the Language Commission, Kathmandu in Hetauda today. 
He called on the Language Commission to play its constitutionally mandated role for making the younger generation responsible for protecting the languages, script and cultural heritages of the country. 

The Chief Minister also underscored the need of making the local level people's representatives responsible for undertaking a campaign for highlighting the importance of and transferring the mother languages, scripts, art and culture to the new generation. 

He said the Province government would, in coordination with the federal government, prepare a master plan from the coming fiscal year 2018/19 for the development of these languages, scripts and heritages into a form of a museum and transferring them to the younger generation. 

Province 3 's Social Development Minister Yuba Raj Dulal stressed on the need of concerted efforts from the Language Commission, all three tiers of governments and the academic institutions for the promotion and protection of the language and culture that are on the verge of extinction. 

Language Commission chair Dr Lav Deo Awasthi said the commission would work towards the protection and promotion of the language and script of the various indigenous nationalities, the Chepangs who are on the verge of extinction, marginalised communities and the dalit peoples as well as to bring these into wider use. The commission has been collecting suggestions at various levels to that end, he added. 

Officials including Province Assembly chief whip of the CPN (UML) Rameshwar Phuyal, the Makawanpur district coordination committee chief Raghunath Khulal and Province 3 government chief secretary Reshmi Raj Pandey, among others also spoke of the urgent need to promote and protect the 123 languages spoken in the country.

Two hundred eighty-five people including the chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local bodies, observers representing various indigenous nationalities and castes, teachers and representatives of the District Education Office from 13 districts of Province 3 attended the symposium. 
---