A Nepali Congress lawmaker on Friday demanded that Hindi be given status of an official language of Nepal, claiming that over 50 percent people of the country speak this language. Speaking at the Legislature-Parliament meeting today, NC leader Devkaran Prasad Kalwar demanded that Hindi be included as one of the official languages claiming that over 80 percent of the Nepali people understand this language. Kalwar requested Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to take a decision to this effect through the Speaker Onsari Gharti. However, he didn’t present the sources to his claims. According to the 2011 Census of Nepal, there are only 77,569 people who speak Hindi. Maithili is the second main language of people after Nepali. Similarly, Bhojpuri, Tamang and Newari are ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively.