Bhubaneswar: After successfully organizing a three-day long World Odia Language Conference here, the State Government today announced sops for promotion of Odia language.
Making a statement in the Assembly, Odia Language Literature and Culture Minister Aswini Kumar Patra announced to set up a corpus of Rs 10 crore for providing grants to conduct research in Odia language at national and international level. This grant shall be housed in the Odia University at Satyabadi, he said.
An International Digital Odia conference will be organized annually to bring together experts to promote Odia language in the digital space. An expert committee will be formed for standardisation of script for keyboard and font. This Committee will work within a fixed time frame and put-up suggestions for implementation, the Minister announced.
Shri Patra said the State Government will recruit exclusive Odia teachers in 1500 high schools initially and then cover all high schools in a time bound manner. A syllabus revision committee will be constituted for Odia teaching in schools which will give suggestions in a regular manner for updating syllabus as per the need.
A heritage grant of Rs 1 crore will be provided in two phases for all schools and colleges that are more than 100 years old and grant of Rs 2 crore to such universities established before independence. Similarly, grant of Rs 2 crore will be given for pre-independence Universities. This is to protect and promote our heritage in Odia education.
“We will come out with a translation policy which will have a translation grant for translating Odia books to other languages of India and the world,” the Minister further announced.
An Odia Lexicon committee will also be formed to come out with a revised lexicon and glossary of Odia terms across disciplines. A medium term policy will be framed for promotion of science, technical and medical education in Odia language, he said.
The State Government will come out with an incentive for publication of need based relevant and publications in Odia keeping current and future requirements.
Specific initiatives to be taken up with in a particular time frame for promotion of Odia language among next generation. This will include 100 budding talents of Odia language to be identified and honored by the Chief Minister annually, the Culture Minister said.
The Bhasa Brudhi scholarships will also be increased in numbers and amounts to make it more inclusive. A Chief Ministers’ Cup will be instituted for debating in Odia among students.
A public library movement will be taken up across the State to promote the reading habit among youth. Odia Associations within India and abroad shall be supported for setting up Odia libraries.
Steps will be taken to promote volunteerism in promotion of Odia language across the state and outside the State. The printing museum in Cuttack to be expanded as the Indian Printing Museum showcasing our printing culture from across the world.
The Odisha Institute of Maritime and South East Asian studies shall be developed into a Centre of Excellence with an annual grant of Rs 2 crore.
Efforts will be made to set up Odia chairs in different universities of India and abroad. To begin with, proposals with 5 universities are in process. An international Journal of Odia studies will be published by Odia University.
An Odia Learning Management System (LMS) will be developed for Odias living outside Odisha. With this, students living in Odisha and outside Odisha will be able to learn Odia language upto class-VIII online and also get certificates. All these facilities will be available on the website of Odia Virtual Academy, he added.