GUWAHATI, Aug 12 - Union Minister of State for Sports and Youth Welfare Sarbananda Sonowal assured a delegation on Monday that he would take up the matter of according the Assamese script its rightful status and independent identity with the authorities concerned in the Central Government.
The delegation comprising litterateur Bisweswar Hazarika, writer Hemendra Kumar Bhuyan and Ashok Sarma gave the minister a memorandum, highlighting the �injustice� meted out to the Assamese script in the Unicode where it has been shown as a part of the Bangla script.
Ashok Sarma, who is a member of the committee formed by the State Government to look into the issue, said that he was hopeful of the resolution of the matter following the assurance of the Central minister.
�The Assamese script is recognised as a part of the Bangla script in the Unicode consortium. Such injustice violates a fundamental right conferred by the Indian Constitution. It also distorts historical, archaeological, geographical and anthropological study findings which have confirmed that the evolution of the Assamese script is far older than any other Indic script. Therefore, the Government of India should take necessary steps to put the Assamese script in its rightful place with a separate slot in the Unicode,� Sarma said.
