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

Updated on: Apr 7, 2023, 20:20:02 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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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.

Apart from Odisha, several states such as Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have made it compulsory for business establishments to display signboards in local languages. The Bhagwant Mann government made it mandatory in February this year for shops to put up signboards in Gurmukhi script.

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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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