Classical status to Odia hopefully within a month: Katoch

BHUBANESWAR: “I have complete faith that the Odia language will get classical status within a month,” said Union Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch in her speech at the foundation stone laying ceremony of peripheral beautification project of the Sun Temple at Konark on Sunday.

Katoch said that her Ministry has taken all the steps to give classical status to Odia language. Her Ministry has recommended to the Union Cabinet to accord classical status to Odia language, she added.

“From the day I became Culture Minister, I get frequent telephone calls regarding declaration of classical tag to Odia like Malayalam recently,” said Katoch.

Notably, the linguistic committee under the Kendra Sahitya Akademi on Tuesday had recommended the Union Culture Ministry to accord classical status to Odia language.

If the Union Cabinet approves the recommendation, Odia would be the first Indo-Aryan language to get classical tag besides four Dravidian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and ancient language Sanskrit.