RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday said, “Chhattisgarhi is our mother tongue and our pride. Continuous efforts are being made to promote it at national and international level.”

He was addressing the event organized at his official residence here to mark the ‘Chhattisgarhi Official Language Day’. The Department of Culture and Archeology organized the event, an official communication said.

He said the Chhattisgarhi language is our pride. As part of promoting the language, the state song ‘Arpa Parry ke Dhaar’ was adopted. Chhattisgarhi language is now being taught in government schools.

It is the responsibility of every ‘Chhattisgarhi’ to work for the progress of the state's language. Government is making efforts to give recognition to Chhattisgarhi in the country and the world by promoting traditional sports and culture, he added.

Chief Minister honoured 13 litterateurs of state for their contribution towards promoting Chhattisgarhi language. They are Jageshwar Prasad, Rameshwar Sharma, Durga Prasad Parkar, and Ramnath Sahu of Raipur, Dr. J. R. Soni (Durg), PC Lal Yadav (Sakti), Sorin Chandrasen (Mahasamund), Parmanand Verma (Khairagarh), Budhram Yadav (Bilaspur), Ranjit Sarathi (Surguja), Dr. Shail Chandra and Duman Lal Dhruv of Dhamtari, and Rudra Narayan Panigrahi (Bastar).

He also released 10 books in Chhattisgarhi language.