BHUBANESWAR: The BJD on Saturday protested imposition of Hindi language by the authorities of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar and demanded usage of Odia language for the benefit of people while availing services at the health facility.
A delegation of BJD MPs and MLAs led by Lok Sabha MP Pinaki Mishra met AIIMS Director Dr Gitanjali Batmanabane seeking immediate withdrawal of the order asking all employees to sign in Hindi and write names and subjects in files and discuss during administrative meetings in Hindi.
In the February 20 order, the staff of the premier health institute were directed to write at least 30 per cent (pc) of their noting and drafting, 55 per cent of all correspondence in Hindi besides filling up all bi-lingual forms and replying to all letters in Hindi.
Terming such imposition of Hindi language as discriminatory, arbitrary and gross violation which will affect Odia people seeking medical care here, the BJD law makers demanded that priority be given to Odia language.
They submitted a memorandum addressed to the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan urging him not to go ahead with the official order that insisted on usage of Hindi by the staff of the institute.
"AIIMS is a public institution and most of the people receiving treatment here speak Odia. Odisha is the first State to be formed on linguistic basis and we will not like to allow anybody sidelining our mother tongue Odia, particularly by any institution that is working for the people of our State," the memorandum stated.
Mishra said as informed by the Director patients will not get affected by the directive as they will continue to fill up forms either in Odia or English. "She said an internal clarification has been issued citing that primacy to Odia will be given in all signages," he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Gitanjali clarified that the directive was issued for staff only after Parliamentary Committee on Official Language during its last visit pointed out serious deficiencies and made adverse comments on the failure of implementing the official language policy.
Making it clear that the order does not apply for interaction with patients or their attendants or for writing prescriptions, she said, first-year undergraduate medical and BSc (Nursing) students of the institute are taught Odia as a language.