Signboards of shops should be prominently in Odia else pay fine: Odisha govt

According to the law, shops and commercial establishments can use any language on the signboards but the text in Odia should be prominent

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has asked all district labour officers and executive officers of municipalities to check if the shopkeepers are using signboards in Odia language and impose penalties on those who do not comply with the law.

Odisha amended the Orissa Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1956 in 2018 (Twitter/SRC_Odisha)

At a meeting chaired by additional chief secretary of Odia language literature & culture department Satyabrata Sahu, it was decided that shopkeepers who flout the Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2018 would first be given seven days.

“If they fail to comply with the norms in these seven days, ₹5,000 penalty will be imposed for the first offence. If they still don’t listen, then penalty upto ₹25000 would be imposed on the shopowners,” said an official of the department.

According to the law, shops and commercial establishments can use any language on the signboards but the text in Odia should be prominent.

Odisha amended the Orissa Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1956 in 2018 as there was no specific provision in the law to compel shops and commercial establishments to display signboards in Odia. The rules were issued in 2019.

Last year, the Maharashtra government made it compulsory for shopowners to have signboards in Marathi language. The Supreme Court, however, ordered the authorities to maintain status quo on the provision in November on a petition by an association of retailers. A similar rule has been in force in Tamil Nadu since 2010 and in Karnataka since 2018.

Opposition leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress said the latest move lacked commitment.