Bhubaneswar: Continuing its efforts to restore the original Odia names of places in the state, the govt has asked all district collectors to examine the names of places in distorted English and submit proposals to reinstate their proper Odia names.Additional chief secretary of revenue and disaster management department Arabinda Padheeon Saturday wrote to all district collectors, asking them to submit their proposals. In his letter, he stated that several districts, district headquarters, subdivisions, blocks and tehsils had English names currently used in official records. However, these English names were distorted forms of their original Odia names, introduced during British rule for ease of pronunciation. The govt intends to restore the authentic Odia names in such cases, he said.Citing an example, he said that in Kendrapada district, Aali is officially written as Aul in English, a spelling that came into use during the British era due to pronunciation difficulties. The name correction exercise aims to rectify such errors and reinstate proper Odia names.The department last month sought a detailed report from all district collectors on the issue. So far, information has been received from 13 districts, .based on which, opinions on proposed name changes were also sought from MLAs, MPs and the general public. Several new proposals were since received. These include correcting Barbil in Keonjhar district to Badbil, Rairakhol in Sambalpur district to Redhakhol and Nayagarh to Nayagada.The department also proposed correcting the spellings of Khurda to Khoradha, Angul to Anugol, Kendrapara to Kendrapada, Keonjhar to Kendujhar and Balasore to Baleshwar. Following this, residents of Cuttack and Berhampur suggested renaming their districts as Kataka and Brahmapur, respectively.Collectors have now been asked to re-examine the earlier reports and submit revised proposals, along with any fresh suggestions, within seven days. Padhee said a comprehensive report will soon be prepared and placed before the govt for consideration.
