To a suggestion of members, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra on Thursday told the Assembly that the concerned House Committee would visit various States to urge them to include Odia as second language of their school syllabus.
“There is no problem for the House Committee to visit various States to urge them to include Odia as a second language in their school syllabus. The State Government has been making efforts for promotion of the mother tongue,” Mishra said while replying to a question of Congress’s Tara Prasad Bahinipati and supplementary questions put by a host of other members.
The Minister said the Government has been providing Odia books to schools in various States where Odia students are studying. During 2014-15, 6,004 Odia textbooks were provided to Jharkhand, 42,834 to West Bengal, 17,250 to Andhra Pradesh, 28,185 to Gujarat, 3,391 to Tamil Nadu, 5,000 to Chhattisgarh and 400 to New Delhi. Similarly, in 2015-16, 4,585 books were given to Jharkhand, 34,703 to West Bengal, 15,204 to Andhra Pradesh and 27,037 textbooks were provided to Gujarat.
The Minister further informed that the Government, in 2014-15, provided `80 lakh towards salaries of 614 teachers and eight supervisors appointed in a total of 614 schools in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. In 2015-16, a total of `1.24 crore was provided for the purpose through the Utkal Sammilani.
He said the complaint that the Utkal Sammilani is not properly distributing textbooks is not based on facts. Besides Utkal Sammilani, Milita Manch is also distributing text books in West Bengal. The State Government has taken an in-principle decision to distribute schools in bordering cut-off areas, he maintained.
To an allegation raised by Aswini Patra that the West Bengal Government was not cooperating with the Odisha House Committee, the Minister said he would take special note of it.