Guwahati,: Literary and student groups in Assam have embarked on a campaign to force the state government to use Assamese as the official language by implementing a legislation to that effect which was enacted nearly five decades ago, movement leaders said on Tuesday.

"In 1960 itself the state passed the Official Language Act. It is unfortunate that governments in Assam have not taken concrete measures to implement the legislation. We are now bent on ensuring that Assamese is actually used as the state's official language," Kanak Sen Deka, president of the Asom Sahitya Sabha (ASS) - Assam's highest socio-literary body - told IANS.

On Monday, Deka, accompanied by dozens of ASS members, toured eastern Assam districts of Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, meeting the district magistrates at their respective offices and making the case for using Assamese in all official documentation and correspondences.

"Our interaction with the district magistrates has been good. Most of them assured me that they would try their best in enforcing the legislation," Deka said.

The ASS has made it clear, however, that it was not against any language as such.

"We are not opposed to the English language or English as a medium of instruction in some schools, for instance. But, Assamese, which is Assam's official language, must be patronised," Deka said.

He said the ASS has urged Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on a number of occasions to take the initiative in implementing the use of Assamese as the official language. "But no government seems to be actually carrying out what has been accepted and made legally binding 47 years ago," Deka said.

The Official Language Act provided for the use of Bengali as associate official language in the Bengali-dominated southern Assam districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi and Bodo in the Bodo-majority districts in western and northern Assam. In the southern districts, Bengali is often used along with English in government offices.

On Monday, another influential organisation in the State, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), urged Bodo leaders running the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) to use Assamese as the official language along with the commonly used Bodo language in the area.

A 20-member AASU delegation led by its president Shankar Prasad Rai made this appeal during a meeting with BTC chief Hagrama Mahilary in Guwahati. IANS

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