BHUBANESWAR: Odisha’s failure to utilise funds allocated by Centre for research and development of Classical Odia Language has led to a drastic cut in grants this year.
The Ministry of Education has provided Rs 83.5 lakh, about Rs 55 lakh less than what it had sanctioned in the last financial year.
Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat informed this in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Like Odia, Rs 83.5 lakh has been provided for development of Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam whereas Tamil continues to get the bulk of the Central funds at Rs 14.3 crore.
Odia received classical language status in 2014 and since 2020-21, the ministry of Education has been providing it grants every year for development, research and promotion of the language. For 2023-24, the ministry had provided Rs 1.38 crore and Rs 1.76 crore in 2022-23.
After classical language status, a Centre of Studies in Classical Odia was set up by the ministry which functions under its Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) in Mysuru, for developing the language and conducting translations and research.
All the classicial languages have their centre of studies under CIIL except Tamil. The Central Institute of Classical Tamil has been converted into an autonomous body under the ministry.
Official sources said “This is because we do not have an autonomous status like Tamil which gets the highest funds. For any research, workshops, events and other activities, we have to seek financial approval from CIIL. It so happens that, we have to spend from our coffers first and then CIIL reimburses us. This makes things slow and difficult,” said Basant Panda, head of the Centre of Studies in Classical Odia.
This is also why the centre continues to operate with eight research fellows even as it has the sanction to appoint 30. “There is a need to give the Odia centre autonomous status and bring it directly under the Ministry of Education. This will help us conduct more research and improve work on the classical language because one does not have to think of financial approvals,” he added.
Panda said that the centre had submitted a project report and written to the ministry seeking autonomy earlier this year. In the last 10 years, the Odia language has received `3.81 crore. Similarly, Malyalam received Rs 3.71 crore in the same period. Both the languages did not receive any funding for the first six financial years after their classical language tag whereas Tamil, Kannada and Telugu continued to get the central grants.
