District Collector Jagannath Mohanty on Friday convened a meeting of some known personalities to take stock of the history of Rayagada district.
Responding to a complaint lodged by Janmejay Swain of the Kalinga Sena district unit regarding use of concocted names of railway stations like Rayagada in place of Rayagad, Balumaska in place of Bhalumaska, Singapore Road instead of K Singhgpur Road, Jimdipeta in place of Jemadeipentha, Komtalpeta instead of Kumutipentha, etc., the Collector convened the meeting of senior denizens of the town and discussed the history and rationale of changing the nomenclatures in the spirit of Odia language.
Rayagada is a district bordering Andhra Pradesh, and, according to ex-Councillor of Rayagada Jayaram Jena, its Telugu population will be up to 30 per cent. Because of the business link, the local tribes earlier spoke Telugu apart from their own tribal language Kui or Soura. But the scenario has now changed with most of the tribal population speaking Odia. The tribals in Kashipur, which was earlier part of Kalahandi, also speak Odia.
The Collector suggested taking up the names which are non-controversial. Rayagada district was constituted in the year 1992.
The Collector proposed to have a district gazetteer with help of denizens who are well-versed with the history and culture of Rayagada and told to give names of interested citizens to District Culture Officer Jagannath Prasad Raiguru.
Basudev Patro, who has written an Odia book on Rayagada called “Rayagad Darpan”, presented the book to the Collector and requested him to refer it during the preparation of the district gazetteer. Janmejay Swain requested the Collector and the gathering to transact the day-to-day correspondences in Odia, with the district administration being proactive on the issue.
Senior advocate Kedar Panda and Gopi Jahu told about the history of Odia typewriter during the JB Patnaik and Biju Patnaik regimes and lamented over the lackadaisical attitude of the implementers and criminal wastage of public money.
The Collector observed that there are limitations in transacting official works in Odia. He cited the example of judicial courts. “Administration and the general public can give a sincere try to write letters in Odia in the context of the classical status of Odia language.” said senior scribes Purna Ratha and NN Padhi.