Bhubaneswar, Nov 19: While the Narendra Modi government is giving thousands of crores of rupees for Odisha's education sector starting from school education to higher education and research, all these benefits should be made available to Odia people on the basis of the Odia language in the larger interests. "This is our priority," Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan said while inaugurating administrative-cum-academic and hostel-cum-guest house building of Eastern Regional Language Centre at Laxmisagar here on Sunday.

Congratulating professors and teachers of the Eastern Language Centre on the occasion, Pradhan said many educational institutes like IIM Sambalpur, IISER Berhampur, and SDI Bhubaneswar have been established in Odisha in recent days. The foundation stone was laid for works worth Rs 100 crore in the Sadshiv Campus of Central Sanskrit University at Puri yesterday.

The Eastern Language Center in Bhubaneswar has been renovated with the support of the Union Government. Developmental projects included today would broaden learning of Shantali, Bengali, and Maithili languages along with Odia. It will create a literary field. The Union Government will also provide support for establishing an auditorium here.

Today, the country is celebrating Language Day to mark the birth anniversary of freedom fighter, eminent Tamil poet Mahakabi Chinnaswamy Subramanya Bharathi. The festival started on September 28 and will continue till December 11. Pradhan proposed to the Center to organiae a special lecture and essay competition on Ordia language in all schools and colleges with the help of the society in order to popularize the Ordia language and bring it to the new generation.

"Indian languages are complementary to each other. In Prime Minister Narendra Modo's visionary National Education Policy, priority has been given to teaching in the mother tongue rather than language as a subject. This is the main difference. When children read texts in their mother tongue at an early stage, their ability to inquisitiveness, debate, and analysis will be enhanced. If Odia children read in their mother tongue, they will become famous like Utkal Gourav Madhubabu, Sarala Das, and Pathani Samanta. Such hopes and aspirations are in my mind." said the Union Minister.

He said the Odia language has been recognised as a classical language. The language spoken in Sambalpur and Ganjam is very sweet. The elegance of language in Mayurbhanj and Dhenkanal is indescribable. The tribes living in Odisha have different languages. Our Odia language is not only sweet but also very old. Speaking this language, our ancestors built Shreemandir at Puri, Sun Temple at Konark and Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar and traded across the seven seas. On April 1, 1936, Odisha was recognised as a separate province on the basis of language.

As an Odia-speaking State, Odisha will complete 100 years in 2036. Pradhan said when Odisha will be completing 100 years of existence as a language-based State in the 21st Century, Odisha needs to be a knowledge center of the world by then, Pradhan said.

On this occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between CIIL, Mysore and NCERT to promote language research in the presence of the Union Minister.

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