Roving Reporter
The Orissa Chief Minister Sri Naveen Patnaik is yet again requested by Bhasha Andolan Chairman Subhas Chandra Pattanayak to rise to the occasion and take prompt steps to repeal or to amend the last amendment to Orissa Official Language Act, 1954, which, unless done, would de facto kill the Act without de jure repealing the same. This is in continuation to his mail to the CM on Jun 29 on the same subject.
The mail is reproduced below:
To
The Hon’ble Chief Minister, Orissa,
Bhubaneswar.Sub: Orissa Official Language Act violated through Amendment, 2018 : Request for re-amendment to do away with the defects and for action against the Officer(s) responsible for rendering even the Hon’ble Chief Minister inconsequential
Ref: My email dated Fri, Jun 29, 2018 in the same subject
Hon’ble Sir,
In my email under reference, I had requested you to please take immediate steps to replace Section 4A inserted through Amendment, 2018 into the Odisha Official Language Act, 1954, on the grounds given therein, specifically as the said amendment would act against the Act itself.
I regret to note, when the Cabinet in its yesterday meeting discussed and approved several proposals to repeal and amend a few working Acts, such as, Proposal for repealing of the Bihar and Odisha Places of Pilgrimage Act,1920 (Bihar and Odisha Act II. of 1920) in its application to the State of Odisha. and Proposal for amendment of the Odisha Hindu Religious Endowments Act,1951 (Odisha Act 2 of 1952), there was no proposal before it to repeal the above-noted notorious Section 4A or to amend it, as suggested by me, in order not to kill the Official Language Act ,1954 under this notorious Section that aims at pushing the Act into de facto death without subjecting it to de jure repealing.
When you were kind enough to invite me for a discussion in your Secretariat chamber on 19.5.2017 on how the Official Language Act should be made flawlessly functional, I had given you a draft amendment for replacement of Section 4, inserted through Amendment , 2016, as the same was inherently deficient to remove the obstacle from the way of governance of Orissa in Oriya. You had handed over the same to your Secretary on the spot for vetting in the department of Law.
Then steps were taken to render the Act inconsequential in the Cabinet dated 26.12.2017 , which I had objected to by pointing out the defects. Consequent upon this, a fresh resolution in the matter was adopted in the Cabinet dated 14.3.2018.
In the mail under reference, I have apprised you of how the amendment of 2018 further injures the Act and why it is essentially urgent to repeal the same amendment or to replace it with a flawless fresh amendment. Black Flag campaign is espousing this suggestion despite alleged attempt of one of your cabinet colleagues to derail the campaign through a couple of gained over yes-men. This speaks very bad of the Government, Hon’ble Sir.
I had requested you in the mail under reference to initiate action against the officer who drafted the 2018 amendment by pushing into oblivion the Resolution of the Cabinet dated 14.3.2018. It was not only a blatant contempt against the Cabinet, but also a shrewd conspiracy to belittle you in the eyes of the people by making you instrumental in de facto killing of the Act, which Late Lamented Nabakrushna Choudhury, the first Chief Minister, had given to Orissa.
In the circumstance, I again request you to please rise to the occasion and repeal the inserted Section 4A effected through amendment, 2018 or to bring in this coming session of the Assembly an amendment on this amendment to do away with its pointed out defects.
Kind Regards,
Yours,
Subhas Chandra Pattanayak,
Chairman, Bhasha Andolan, Orissa and Chief of Bhashaandolan.com.
25.8.2018