New Delhi: Government is committed to promote Indian languages and it has set up institutions in various universities in this direction, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said today (Feb 26, 2004).

Vajpayee, who was addressing the first meeting of the Indian Languages Promotion Council in New Delhi, said that four more languages, Bodo, Maithili, Dogri and Santhali, had been added to the eighth schedule, bringing the total to 22.

Stating that the Government has taken several measures for promotion of Indian languages, he expressed happiness that these languages in their respective areas were doing well.

He cited the examples of newspapers like Malyalam Manorama, Anand Bazar Patrika, Maharashtra Times, Gujarat Samachar and Eenadu in different languages and said these newspapers were widely read by the people.

Vajpayee said that State Governments and the National Book Trust could play a vital role in promoting Indian languages and suggested involvement of universities and non-Governmental organisations in this task.

Addressing the meeting, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi called for use of new technology for promotion and development of languages and literature.

The Government had started a 'Sanskrit net' programme in the Gyan Darshan and a 'Tamil online' programme for self-learning of the languages, he said.