Various studies have revealed how a large segment of students in government schools in Odisha continues to be highly deficient in elementary mathematics and even Odia language. Comfort-level in English is even far less.
Yet Government of Odisha launched a programme with great hype and called it " Enabling Transparency and Accountability of Odisha Initiatives" -- "PEETHA" , for short. And soon the political managers got busy, explaining the path-breaking scheme to "English savvy" Odisha voters and the rural men and women launched almost a festival at the grassroots level carrying PEETHA (PITHA) to official functions at the panchayat level. Pitha is a type of rice cake and is common in Bangladesh, Nepal and India, especially all of Bangladesh the eastern states of Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura.
Perhaps realising its success with "English loving" Odisha rural population, Government launched yet another programme in "Hinglish" calling it "Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation" or "KALIA" for short. And the people were perhaps made to see in it the incarnation of the Lord of Universe whom most Odias endearingly address as KALIA.
Urban craze for foreign names is no less. A popular scheme that seems to be dear to denizens of the millennium city Cuttack is widely known as "JAICA" -- acronym for Japanese Agency for International Cooperation. The programme is for a comprehensive sewage disposal project. The project has perhaps suffered severe time overrun and I suspect even cost overrun as well. The city lanes remain strewn with incomplete open cuts. The city dwellers seem to have taken the scheme kindly despite it remaining incomplete for years. I suspect the secret behind this tolerance is the Foreign name (JAICA) by which the scheme is widely known.
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January 21, 2019
Yet Government of Odisha launched a programme with great hype and called it " Enabling Transparency and Accountability of Odisha Initiatives" -- "PEETHA" , for short. And soon the political managers got busy, explaining the path-breaking scheme to "English savvy" Odisha voters and the rural men and women launched almost a festival at the grassroots level carrying PEETHA (PITHA) to official functions at the panchayat level. Pitha is a type of rice cake and is common in Bangladesh, Nepal and India, especially all of Bangladesh the eastern states of Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura.
Perhaps realising its success with "English loving" Odisha rural population, Government launched yet another programme in "Hinglish" calling it "Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation" or "KALIA" for short. And the people were perhaps made to see in it the incarnation of the Lord of Universe whom most Odias endearingly address as KALIA.
Urban craze for foreign names is no less. A popular scheme that seems to be dear to denizens of the millennium city Cuttack is widely known as "JAICA" -- acronym for Japanese Agency for International Cooperation. The programme is for a comprehensive sewage disposal project. The project has perhaps suffered severe time overrun and I suspect even cost overrun as well. The city lanes remain strewn with incomplete open cuts. The city dwellers seem to have taken the scheme kindly despite it remaining incomplete for years. I suspect the secret behind this tolerance is the Foreign name (JAICA) by which the scheme is widely known.
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January 21, 2019
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