Much before nearly 200 participants of the Sammelan sat down to its actual listed business, Ratnakar Pandey, honorary president of the National Hindi Academy Calcutta moved a resolution seeking official recognition to Hindi language by the United Nations Assembly. The resolution, besides a few others being taken up later, will be adopted by the Sammelan on October 4 - the day Sammelan ends. The Sammelan is organised by National Hindi Academy in collaboration with the State Department of Art, Culture and Languages.

Pandey, speaking briefly on the importance of UN recognition to the language, recalled that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was the first Indian leader, who spoke in Hindi at the UN Assembly during his earlier tenure as Foreign Minister of the country. ``If he during this time as a Prime Minister can take a decision on nuclear-tests to make the country feel proud, it is only he who can get an recognition to Hindi language too,'' Pandey hoped.

Inaugurating the Sammelan, Rama Devi paid rich tributes to Mahatama Gandhi, who not only played a leading role for freedom of the country but also in propogating Hindi, especially in the South where Gandhiji set up Prachar Samitis. The governor did not see any conflict between Hindi and other regional languages and claimed that all other languages are supplementary to Hindi.

Underling the importance of Cinema, TV and print and electronic media in popularising Hindi, she said that such mediums should be effectively used for creating awareness in the society. The Governor exhorted writers and intellectuals to write in simple and interesting language, so that the common people were attracted towards their literature and language.

Swadesh Bharti, president of Rashtriya Hindi Academy, in his welcome address, said that the language, art and culture brought man nearer to each other. He said that the academy was honouring the literary works in all the 18 Indian languages.

Kamla Sankrityayan, member, Minorities Commission, asked to ensure that no injustice was done to Hindi. Prem Sharma, director of Language, Art and Culture also spoke.

The Governor presented national literary awards to six eminent writers. The recipients were Shreeniwas Shrikant (Dinkar Rastriya Sahitya Sammen. Bal Shore Reddy (Mahakavi Subramang Bharti Samman, S.M. Shah (Rashtriya Hindi Seva Samman), Prasan Kumar (Pakir Mehan Sanapti Samman), Mahendra Karti Keya (Jai Shankar Prasad Samman) and Sunita Jain (Mahadevi Devi Verma Samman).

She also presented Rashtriya Rajbhasha shield Samman to 13 public sector undertakings for outstanding work in official language.