The Odisha government on Tuesday announced it will host the first-ever 'Biswa Odia Bhasha Sammilani' (World Odia Language Conference) in February 2024, to strengthen and popularise the language. The Heritage Cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, approved a proposal in this regard during a meeting on Tuesday. He said that national and international language experts as well as researchers will be invited for the three-day event. "The date of the conference will be decided later," Odia Language, Literature and Culture Department Minister Ashiwini Patra told the media after the meeting. Sujata R Karthikeyan, secretary of the department, said, "The conference is with an aim to educate youths about the language. We will address key issues like how to integrate Odia language with professional courses, role of the language in the digital era, and inputs to formulate policies accordingly." Students from across the state would take part in the conference, with special programmes being in place in schools and colleges, said official sources, adding that the Odisha government has also appealed to non-resident Odias (NROs), living abroad, to take part in the conference. Planned a few months before the 2024 general and Assembly elections, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-led state government's move is seen as an "attempt to give a push to the Odia language and pride". Odia became the sixth Indian language — following Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit and Tamil — and first from the Indo-Aryan linguistic group, to get the classical tag by the Centre in February 2014. The Patnaik government had submitted a proposal in this regard in June 2013, claiming Odia language has a history of over 2,500 years. Earlier, the Assembly had cleared the Odisha Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2018, making penal provisions for not using the Odia language by state government officials in official communication.
