Javadekar likely to call meeting of experts to promote Maithili script

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar is likely to call a meeting of experts on Maithili language, which is spoken in a vast region of Bihar and parts of Jharkhand, for preservation and promotion of its script, ministry sources said.

The assurance came in a meeting Javadekar had with JD(U) general secretary Sanjay Jha, who urged him to take steps for the script's promotion.

Jha said he urged the minister to also constitute a committee and make funds available for preserving and promoting Maithili script.

He said that the language was put in the Constitution's 8th Schedule, which gives it an official status, by the first NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now the second NDA government headed by Narendra Modi would take steps to promote its script.

The official status allows UPSC aspirants to take up Maithili as one of the subjects in their exams and also makes it incumbent on the government to take measures for its promotion.

"The HRD minister has assured me that whatever is needed will be done in this regard," Jha said.

Maithili is spoken in vast swathes of Bihar and is the predominant language of the Mithila region in north Bihar.