Bangalore:  The Konkani Sahitya Academy led by Kundapur Narayana Kharvi as its president has conferred honorary membership and book awards on March 26 in city on 3 persons and 3 writers.
The honorary members are Lion Agnel Rodrigues, Dr.Edward Nazareth and Gopinath Bhat. Each gets Rs.10,000 with citation/mementoes. Builder-philanthropist P.Dayananda Pai distributed these awards.
The book awardees were Steven Quadros of Permude, Mangalore Taluk, Antony P. D’Souza of Barkur and M.S Cathrine Rodrigues of Katpadi who received Rs.5,000 each and citation/mementoes from Academy chairman K.N Kharvi. Swimming Champion Prakash Kharvi and writer Stanley R D’Costa were presented with special mention awards on the occasion.
The Konkani Academy organised the function on Saturday in Malleshwaram at the Kashi Mutt Hall when local MLA Dr. Ashwath Narayana graced the occasion and addressed the distinguished gathering. He lamented the fact that under the pretext that one’s financial prospects, people were ready to sacrifice their mother tongue and social culture, which are essential to identify one’s base and upbringing. It is a dangerous development when one’s own mother language and culture are sacrificed at the altar of money and position, Dr. Ashwath stated.
The coastal people are protecting and developing Konkani which is the only language in India spoken and written by Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike. They love Konkani language and it is a glowing sign of Indian traditional excellence, the MLA said.
Kannada and Culture Dept. secretary Ramesh B. Salki also spoke. He assured all help to Konkani. A sum of Rs5 crores is earmarked for Konkani by state govt., as Konkani is an ancient language still alive, he added.