With the State Government taking no visible steps in ensuring setting up of a Central Institute for Odia and an Odia University, educationists, linguists, scholars and litterateurs here joined hands and urged the State Government to ensure the same without any further delay.
On February 20, Odia became the sixth language in India to get Classical status following an approval from the Union Cabinet. Earlier, Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam had been accorded the Classical language tag.Participating in a discussion on the promotion of Odia language organsied by the National Archives (Eastern Zone) and the Institute for Odia Studies and Research at the National Archive, linguist Debiprasanna Pattanayak said, “It is true that Odia got the Classical status. But now, the State Government has to play a vital role for its promotion. Hence, the Government should approach the Centre to follow the Tamil Nadu model of a Central Institute in Classical Odia under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development soon.”
“The institute would facilitate research activities, translation and cultural links,” said Institute for Odia Studies and Research member-secretary Subrat Kumar Prusty.This apart, the participants too urged the State Government to expedite the process of establishing an Odia University.Among others, Information Technology Secretary Madhu Sudan Padhi, former BPUT Vice-Chancellor Omkarnath Mohanty, litterateur Sitakanta Mahapatra, professors and senior faculty members of various universities and colleges attended the session.