Bhubaneswar, Jan. 3: The Odisha government is considering a proposal to set up an Odia university. A committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary is examining the proposal.

Higher education minister Badri Narayan Patra said that with the Odia language all set to attain the classical language status, the proposed university would help in conducting research on Odia and its links with other languages.

Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of the language conference here last evening, Patra said a proposal for the university had come up from a private organisation.

Kendrapara MLA Sipra Mallik, who had brought a private member’s bill in the Assembly in 2012 for the establishment of a language university, said: “Once the classical tag is attained, we will go to the districts to make people aware of the importance of our language.”

The two-day conference was organised by the Institute of Odia Studies and Research.

Indologist Hermann Kulke from Kiel University, Germany, said: “There should be an effort to preserve the classical language as regional languages are threatened by other languages and even foreign languages such as English.”