Bhubaneswar, Aug. 16: All official work started in Odia in the state from today as the Odisha Official Language Rules, 2016, came into effect.

The Rules were approved by the state cabinet on August 12 which enabled the government to implement the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954. The Act could not be implemented for the last 62 years as the rules had not been framed to this effect.

On August 8, the state cabinet had empowered the state government to frame rules so that the 62-year-old law could come into effect.

Earlier, the state government had promulgated an ordinance to implement the Act as the Assembly was not in session. With the Rules getting the cabinet nod on August 12, the Official Language Division came into being. General administration joint secretary Ganesh Chandra Patra took over as head of the division today.

The division, under the administrative control of the general administration department, will supervise the implementation process.

An official committee, headed by the chief secretary, will monitor implementation of the government's decisions. The committee will review effective implementation of government decisions within six months. The committee, which is to meet at lease twice in a year, has to prepare the report regarding effective implementation within two months from the date of meeting and submit the same to the government within a period of one month after its preparation.

The head of the departments or organisations will be accountable to the committee. He or the nodal officer authorised by him will be invited by the committee where he will have to furnish a report.

However, the implementation process has not started in the departments. A senior official said they were yet to receive any circular or copy of the official notification on the use of Odia issued by the general administration department on August 12

"The gazette notification is awaited and once we get a copy, we will initiate the implementation at the departmental level," said the official, adding that a nodal officer would be designated for each department#.

Apart from initiating the official procedures for enforcing the use of Odia in office work, there are many other challenges before the government.

"The first thing is to train the employees for use of Odia software on computer keyboard and file the letters in Odia through e-dispatch system of Odisha Secretariat Work Automation System (Oswas)," said an under-secretary. For now, inter-departmental official letters are being sent through Oswas only in English.

The other major challenge is to reprint or compiling of a glossary of administrative terms. Earlier, Odisha Prasashanik Sabdakosh (glossary of administrative terms in Odia) had been printed by the state government in the eighties. Now, it is out of print.