Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has directed all district administrations to immediately implement the revised English spellings of the names of districts, sub-divisions, tehsils, blocks and urban local bodies across all official government communications and records.
The Revenue and Disaster Management Department on Monday issued instructions to all District Magistrates to ensure the mandatory use of the revised spellings in every sphere of official work. The directive was communicated through a letter issued by Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee.
The move follows the State Government’s notification issued on June 22, 2026, revising the English spellings of the names of administrative units to better reflect their original Odia pronunciation. The government has clarified that the exercise is limited to correcting the English spellings and does not involve any change in the names or status of the administrative units.
According to the department’s directive, the revised spellings must now be used in all official documents, correspondence, notifications, government records, websites, digital portals, advertisements, signboards, nameplates and every other form of official communication.
District Collectors have been instructed to ensure that all government offices, urban local bodies, panchayati raj institutions and other government agencies under their jurisdiction adopt the revised spellings without delay. They have also been asked to submit an action-taken report to the Revenue and Disaster Management Department within 15 days of receiving the communication.
The government has, however, provided a transition period of six months for commercial establishments and private institutions operating within the concerned administrative areas to update their signboards and nameplates in accordance with the revised English spellings.
Explaining the objective of the initiative, Dr. Padhee said the uniform adoption of the revised spellings would ensure consistency and accuracy in official records and administrative processes while preserving Odisha’s linguistic and cultural identity by bringing the English spellings closer to the pronunciation in Odia.
