Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday announced it while he held a meeting with the representatives of 22 indigenous Sahitya Sabhas (Literary Bodies) including Asom Sahitya Sabha and Bodo Sahitya Sabha at Brahmaputra State Guest House in Guwahati.
A government release stated that, as per decision taken in the meeting, the Assam Chief Minister announced that state government would provide one time financial grant of Rs 50,000 to 1000 new writers belonging to various communities of the state under “Bhasha Gaurav” scheme which was a budget announcement.
The Assam Chief Minister had also announced that, the state government would provide Rs 10 crore to Corpus Fund of Asom Sahitya Sabha, Rs 5 crore to Bodo Sahitya Sabha and Rs 3 crore each to the other indigenous Sahitya Sabhas as one time grant.
Accordingly, Asom Sahitya Sabha would be able to derive an amount of Rs 80 lakh annually as interest from the corpus fund while Bodo Sahitya Sabha would receive Rs 40 lakh and other indigenous Sahitya Sabhas would get Rs 24 lakh each annually.
Sarbananda Sonowal hoped that this scheme would be able to inspire young generation writers to engage in literary works in different indigenous languages of the state.
During the meeting, the Assam Chief Minister urged the indigenous literary bodies to put emphasis on research works for preservation and promotion of indigenous language and culture and assured all help from the state government in this regard.
The representatives of Asom Sahitya Sabha, Bodo Sahitya Sabha, Indigenous Tribal Sahitya Sabha Assam, Deori Sahitya Sabha, Dimasa Sahitya Sabha, Asom Nepali Sahitya Sabha, Nikhil Rabha Sahitya Sabha, Karbi Sahitya Sabha, Mising Sahitya Sabha, Nikhil Bishnupriya Sahitya Sabha, Purbanchal Tai Sahitya Sabha, Tiwa Sahitya Sabha, Asom Manipuri Sahitya Parishad, Garo Sahitya Sabha, Moran Sahitya Sabha, Asom Chah Janagusti Sahitya Sabha, Sonowal Kachari Sahitya Sabha, Kurukh Sahitya Sabha, Konch Rajbangshi Sahitya Sabha, Shautal Sahitya Sabha, Mundari Sahitya Sabha, Sarania Kachari Sahitya Sabha took part in the meeting.
Assam Commerce Chandra Mohan Patowary, Media Advisor to the Chief Minister Hrishikesh Goswami, Legal Advisor to the Chief Minister Shantanu Bharali, Commissioner & Secretary of Primary and Secondary Education department Pritam Saikia were also present in the meeting.
