KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, May 10: All these years Orissa government always spelt the name of the State as Orissa in English and Odisha when it came to writing the same in Oriya. Those who ruled the State in the past also wrote the language as Oriya in English and Odia in Oriya and made no efforts to get the spellings corrected. But Naveen Patnaik Government's efforts to remove the anomalies may soon bear fruit.

The State government had written to the Central Government last year about the need to get the spellings corrected for all official purposes. Orissa

should be spelt as Odisha and Oriya should be spelt Odia, the government had said.

The Central government has agreed to the State government's request and advised it to complete the formalities before the English spellings of Orissa and Oriya are corrected as Odisha and Odia for all times to come.

According to Home Secretary Tarunkanti Mishra, the Centre has asked the State government get the proposal approved by its Cabinet and also adopt a resolution in the State Assembly.

Once these formalities are over, the Centre would carry out the necessary amendments in the Constitution, Mishra said.

The Home Secretary told reporters here on Friday that the process had started for the getting the matter approved in the next meeting of the State Cabinet and adopting a resolution in the Assembly when it is convened next time.

It is common knowledge that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik does not know how to read and write Odia, except putting his signature in the language. But he would certainly get the credit when the changes come into effect as Orissa is spelt as Odisha and Oriya as Odia.

The move has been welcomed by different political parties and the people of the State at large.