BHUBANESWAR: Despite tall proclamations on propagating Odia Asmita and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s announcement that all official works will be done in Odia language, the state government has now notified that English can be used along with Odia wherever required.
The Department of General Administration (GA) & Public Grievance has come out with a notification, identifying official works that can be done completely in Odia or Odia and English both.
Majhi, after officially starting work from the chief minister’s office (CMO) at Lok Seba Bhawan here in July, had announced that all official works will be done in Odia language in the state. “All files coming to me need to be drafted in Odia. If necessary, the Odisha Official Language Act will be amended to widen the use of Odia language at the official level,” he had said.
A fresh notification issued by the GA department stated that while an effort will be made by government offices to use Odia as the official language, all the government invitations, name plates of departments and officers, will be in Odia or both Odia and English. Likewise, all the bills introduced in the State Assembly should be both in English and Odia.
Under section 2(2) of Odisha Official Language Act, cabinet memorandums and meeting agendas of cabinet of ministers can be in both languages but all review meeting minutes will be in Odia. All gazette notifications, press releases, information sheets, notifications and content of government websites will be in Odia and English.
While efforts to seek response from higher authorities of the GA department on allowing use of English in government works did not yield any response, language expert Subrat Prusty said the notification is similar to what the previous governments had issued on use of Odia as official language.
“The present government should take corrective measures. Implementation is the need of the hour,” Prusty said.