While the entire State observed the Shastriya Odia Bhasa Divas with much fanfare on March 11, the State-owned Odia Bhasa Pratisthan established for the conservation and promotion of Odia language seems to be rapidly losing its glory owing to Government apathy and negligence.
The premier language institute founded in April, 2006 for extension of Odia language has published a meagre eight books in the last nine years. Besides, it was in news for wrong reasons for the controversial Odia Barnabodha–Odia primer last year. The institute’s Executive Committee and General Council oversee the functioning and recruitments in the organisation.
Notably, the Chief Minister is the ex officio president and School and Mass Education Minister is the ex officio vice-president of the General Council. Similarly, the School and Mass Education Minister is the chairman and the State Chief Secretary is the acting chairman of the Executive Committee.
Even though it has high profile dignitaries on board, the General Council hasn’t met in the last eight years and the Executive Committee hasn’t been convened in the last two years. As per norms, the General Council should meet biannually and the Executive Committee once in every four months.
‘’The Odisha Bhasa Pratishthan is presently under the School and Mass Education department and soon it’s going to be under the control of the Culture department. As the decisions regarding functioning of the institute will be taken by the latter, we haven’t prepared any roadmap for promotion and extension of Odia language,’’ a senior official of the institute said on conditions of anonymity.
The appointment of contractual appointees, retired officials and not recruiting permanent staff in the institute has plagued the organisation. As the School and Mass Education department has not been relieving its officials on deputation to the institute, retired officials have been recruited in key positions to rehabilitate them. This depicts the apathetic attitude towards it, the official alleged.
In addition to this, the post of the Director has been lying vacant for the last six months for which senior bureaucrat Hadibandhu Singh Sardar has been given additional responsibility to manage the affairs. As per information posted on its official website (http://odiabhashapratisthan.org/english/), the post of Programme Coordinator, Administrative Officer, Assistant Programme Coordinator, Senior Assistants, and Typist are yet to be filled. ‘’Sardar visits the office hardly twice or thrice in a month and nobody has the record of the attendance of other staff,’’ sources alleged.