Airlines in Goa should make announcements in Konkani: Minister

Goa minister Vijai Sardesai, whose GFP is part of the BJP-led coalition government, Saturday said his party workers should not allow airlines to operate at the Dabolim airport if announcements are not made in local Konkani language.

Sardesai, who heads Goa Forward Party (GFP), also said that "blacking out" Konkani at the airport is not acceptable.

Goa has lone airport at Dabolim in south Goa. Konkani is the official language of the coastal state.

"I feel that Goa Youth Forward (the youth wing of the GFP) should take up this issue. If there is no announcement in Konkani when a flight lands at the Goa airport, then all these airlines should not be allowed to operate", the Town and Country Planning Minister said.

He was speaking at inaugural function of a city square which was named after veteran Konkani writer (late) Madhavi Sardesai, who was elder sister of the minister.

"Blacking out Konkani at the Goa airport is unacceptable and we should project our language first", he said.

Recalling the day when he had gone to receive Madhavi at the airport with a wheel-chair (before she died last year), Sardesai said his sister was upset over the increased projection of casinos and lack of announcements in the Konkani language at the airport.

"When she was brought back from Mumbai, I had gone to receive her. She was upset that after her arrival, the (Dabolim) airport was full of advertisements for casinos and there was no mark of Konkani on the airport", said the minister.

He recalled how his sister, a Sahitya Academy awardee, was at the forefront during an agitation for the Konkani language.

Besides the GFP, the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independent MLAs are supporting the Manohar Parrikar-led dispensation in Goa.