Bhubaneswar: The Revenue and Disaster Management (R&DM) department Monday directed all District Collectors to ensure the immediate adoption of revised English spellings of the names of districts, sub-divisions, tehsils, blocks and urban local bodies in all government communications and official records.
The directive was issued by R&DM Department Additional Chief Secretary Arabinda Kumar Padhee through a letter addressed to all District Collectors, instructing them to ensure strict compliance with the revised spellings notified by the state government.
The state government had issued a notification June 22, 2026, revising the English spellings of administrative units to align them better with their Odia pronunciation. The government clarified that the exercise involved only the correction of English spellings and did not alter the official names or administrative status of any district, sub-division, tehsil, block or urban local body.
According to Padhee’s letter, the revised spellings must be used in all official documents, correspondence, notifications, records, websites, online portals, advertisements, signboards and other forms of government communication. District Collectors have also been asked to ensure that all government offices, local bodies and related institutions under their jurisdiction adopt the revised spellings without delay.
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The R&DM department has directed District Collectors to submit an Action Taken Report (ATR) within 15 days of receiving the letter, detailing the steps taken to implement the revised spellings. In addition, commercial establishments and private institutions located in the affected administrative areas have been given six months to replace their existing signboards with ones carrying the revised English spellings.
Padhee said the uniform adoption of the revised spellings would help preserve Odisha’s linguistic and cultural identity while ensuring consistency, accuracy and standardisation in government records and administrative processes across the state.