Paramaribo (Surinam): Seeking to boost India's efforts to make Hindi an official language of the United Nations, the World Hindi Conference on June 8 passed a resolution in this regard and urged the Indian government to take all necessary steps to expedite the process.

The resolution passed during a session on "Hindi in United Nations" also asked the government to coordinate with other members of the UN to muster necessary support for clearing the proposal. The resolution would now be discussed at a special session to be held on June 9 following which it would be forwarded to the Indian government.

Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh has already stated during the inaugural session that the government was "trying its level best" to get the official language status to Hindi before the UN General Assembly session to be held in September.

Singh had also stated that the government was ready to bear the Rs 100-crore initial expenditure for the same.

This would also ensure that when Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's address in Hindi during the session would be in the official language of the world body.

The demand for granting official language status to Hindi at the UN was mooted at the first World Hindi Conference in Nagpur and every Conference since then has been passing resolutions to this effect.

PTI