Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation is in a fix about time-bound implementation of the housing and urban development department's order that makes it compulsory for all shop and commercial establishments to have signboards in Odia.
What has put the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in a quandary is that the gazette notification issued on May 30 reached the civic officials on June 30, which incidentally was the last date to implement the order.
"We have issued necessary instructions to our establishment cell to comply with the order," said deputy commissioner Srimanta Mishra.
So far the government had been following the rules framed under the Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishment Act, 1956, which did not make it mandatory for shops and commercial establishments to display signboards in Odia.
"We have brought certain changes to the act in view of the recent decision of the state cabinet about making it mandatory for all shops and commercial establishments to put up signboards written in Odia script," said an official of the housing and urban development department.
According to the amendments made in the act, shops and commercial establishments will have to display signboards in Odia, as well as other languages, within a month of the act being published in the Odisha Gazette.
However, the delay in getting the order from the housing and urban development department has put civic officials in a fix on how to get things done when the deadline for implementing the order has already passed.
Housing and urban development department has a different take on the delay in issuing the order.
"The notification about the amendment was issued by the labour and ESI department. We had sent it to the BMC and other agencies concerned after receiving it from the labour department," said a senior official of the urban development department.
Principal secretary, urban development department, G. Mathi Vathanan said that the department had not made any delay in circulating the order and its implementation had already been taken up.
