BHUBANESWAR: As part of the move to correctly spell names of different places in Odisha which had been distorted from colonial times, the state government on Monday officially modified the spellings of 64 districts, sub-divisions, tehsils, block and ULBs.
A notification issued by the Revenue and Disaster Management department said that the decision has been taken with a view to preserving the linguistic and cultural identity of Odisha. Besides, it will restore and standardise the English spellings of the names of districts, sub-divisions and other places in the state in conformity with Odia phonetics. This is also an important initiative of the government under its Odia Asmita campaign.
The changes include Cuttack being officially spelt as Kataka and Rourkela as Raurkela. Other district headquarters and major towns have also undergone spelling revisions based on Odia pronunciation like Angul as Anugola. While Bolangir will be spelled as Balangir, Balasore will change to Baleshwar. Nilgiri will be Nilagiri and Bargarh will be spelt as Baragada.
Salipur will change to Salepur while Athagarh will be written as Athagada. The spelling of Berhampur will change to Brahmapur. Similarly, Aska will be Asika while Bhawanipatna will be spelt as Bhabanipatana. Khurda will now be Khorda while Jeypore will be written as Jayapur. Sonepur district has been changed to Sonpur and Sundargarh to Sundaragada.
The state government had set up a high-level committee led by eminent litterateur Prativa Ray to study the matter and submit its recommendations. The committee had recommended correction in the spellings of the names of 64 places. The cabinet earlier had this month approved the recommendations.
The notification clarified the corrections relate solely to the English spellings of the administrative units and will not be construed as effecting any change in their names.