Hindi Row In AIIMS Bhubaneswar: Ruling-BJD Submits Memorandum To Union Minister Seeking Withdrawal Of Order

Bhubaneswar: Amid protests and condemnations over the directive of Bhubaneswar AIIMS authorities to its employees to use Hindi as a language of communication, a delegation of BJD MPs and MLAs on Saturday met the hospital authorities seeking withdrawal of the order.

The delegation led by Puri MP Pinaki Mishra sent a memorandum to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan through the AIIMS Bhubaneswar Director urging the former not to go ahead with the official order that insisted on the usage of Hindi by the staff and faculty of the Institute.

“We strongly lodge our protest through this memorandum that such imposition of Hindi language is discriminatory, arbitrary and a gross violation which will adversely affect thousands of people of Odisha who seek medical care from AIIMS Bhubaneswar,” the memorandum said.

“Odisha is the first State to be formed on linguistic basis and we will not like to allow anybody sidelining our mother tongue Odia, particularly by any institution that is working for the people of our State,” it added.

Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, MP Pinaki Mishra said, “The AIIMS Bhubaneswar director clarified that the directive was issued after a language committee during a visit to the institute pointed out that the target of usage of Hindi language was not being met. However, patients will not get affected by the directive and they will continue to fill up forms either in Odia or English. There will be no compulsion either for patients to learn and speak Hindi.”

“Almost all signage here are in either Odia or English. So it is not true that we are imposing Hindi language on the staff. Whatever you are talking about is an internal memo which was circulated. Because there is something called as Official Language Act and we are supposed to comply with that,” said AIIMS Bhubaneswar director, Dr Gitanjali B.