The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has protested against the directive of the AIIMS Bhubaneswar authorities to its employees to speak and write in Hindi in the institution, accusing the centre of imposing Hindi in the state at the cost of Odia.
Chief of Parliamentary party, Pinaki Mishra affirmed that the BJD will lodge a strong protest against Union Health Minister Dr. Harshavashdhan for this directive of AIIMS authorities imposing Hindi on the employees. Mishra said, “We would not like to allow anybody sidelining our mother tongue, particularly by any institution that is working for the people of our state. We will insist on Odia being used since our people are familiar with it and that will make their task of availing services at AIIMS easier.”
AIIMS Bhubaneswar had issued a notice on Thursday asking the employees to sign in, as well as write names and subjects in all files in the Hindi language. The notice was read as, “All the officers in administration, academic section, hospital administration, finance and accounts are hereby informed to do their work in Hindi and it should be ensured that the staff members working with them are doing their work in Hindi as per Official Languages Rules, 1976. Discussions may be in Hindi in all administrative meetings and the minutes are to be prepared in Hindi as far as possible.”
The employees of AIIMS Bhubaneswar were directed to write at least 30 per cent of their notes and drafts in Hindi and write at least 55 per cent of all correspondence in Hindi, to fill up all bi-lingual forms used in offices in Hindi, reply to all letters in Hindi.
Saptagiri Ulaka, a congress MP from Koratpur too had protested against the directive saying it was another attempt by the Centre to impose Hindi at the cost of regional language Odia.
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Dillip Dashsharma, President of Utkal Sammilani, a body promoting Odia language said that the directive of AIIMS authorities is an insult to Odia language as it is one of the 22 languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
He said, “Every language must be given respect and no one should force any language on anybody. Rather, the Odia language should be made compulsory as per the Odisha Official Language (Amendment) Act.”
