Keen on promoting Marathi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan today asked officials to take immediate steps to strengthen the language, in the Information Technology (IT) field.

"In order to make it a global language, Marathi should be strengthened in IT and the Chief Minister asked officials to take urgent measures to make available unicode system," sources in Mantralaya said.

Chavan also stressed on maximum use of the language in Government establishments, they added.

He interacted with a committee of experts appointed to draw a policy for the language here today.

Justice Narendra Chapalgaonkar(Retd) is the head of the committee which includes noted writers and scholars.

Another issue discussed at today's meeting concerned languages in the neighbouring six states and their impact on Marathi.

"There are lot of things happening in neighbouring state languages which has impact on Marathi and vice versa.

This needs to be studied carefully to have a better understanding of the language and Chavan approved the demand," Hari Narke, one of the members of the society said.

It was also proposed to translate 50 major Marathi books into national and foreign languages, Narke said.