Use Hindi in official work, says President Mukherjee

New Delhi, Sep 14 (ANI): Asserting that if we want the Indian democracy to be strong and progressive, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said 'we should respect Hindi and regional languages in the working of central and state governments respectively'.

After conferring 55 awards in various categories for excellence in different fields pertaining to Hindi on the occasion of 'Hindi Diwas' here, Mukherjee said: "Language has an important role in democracy because it is a mode of communication between the government and people. This is why in our constitution, Hindi has been given the status of national language for work at the Centre while regional languages were recognised for work in states."

He further said that the development programmes of the government could only be implemented effectively through the use of Hindi and other regional languages.

Mukherjee further said that Hindi is also contributing significantly in business arena as foreign companies have adopted Hindi and other regional languages for augmenting their business in the country.

Asserting that Hindi is being taught in 150 Universities across the world, Mukherjee said: "Hindi has also been recognised as one of the seven heritage languages of UNESCO."

Hindi Diwas is being observed across the country today to commemorate the historic occasion, as Hindi was adopted as the official language of constituent assembly on September 14, 1949.

It was on September 14, 1949 when the Constitution-makers of the country decided to accord the status of Official Language of the Union to Hindi. To commemorate the historic occasion, Hindi Diwas is observed every year this day. (ANI)