A proposal to fix the English spellings of several place names that were changed or distorted during the colonial era was agreed by the state Cabinet, which is presided over by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, on Friday night.
In an attempt to bolster "Odia asmita" (Odia identity) and restore the historical legitimacy of place names in the state, the decision was made on the eve of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's third year in power.
The government will restore the original Odia phonetic forms of 64 locations scattered over 26 districts in accordance with the plan put out by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department and accepted by the Cabinet.The modifications will take the place of colonial-era spellings that, although significantly different from the original Odia pronunciations, have persisted in official English records for decades.
The government gave several examples, such as "Aul," which will be changed to "Aali," and "Balasore," which would be changed back to "Baleshwar" to match the names these locations are traditionally known by in Odia. Anugola, Baragada, Kataka, Khordha, Debagada, Nayagada, Sonpur, Sundaragada, Brahmapur, Jayapur, Redhakhol, Asika, and Sora are among the other locations whose spellings have been corrected.

According to officials, British administrators introduced many of these spellings by transliterating native names using English phonetics. This led to distortions that eventually found their way into official records, maps, railway documentation, postal records, and government communications.
The project was sparked by the chief minister's concerns that the state's linguistic and cultural identity was being undermined by a number of place names that were officially used in English but were incongruous with Odia phonetics. He gave regional administrations instructions to find places where official English spellings differed from real Odia names.

All district collectors were then requested to provide thorough reports on these irregularities. Elected officials, academics, cultural institutions, and residents of various Odisha regions also provided recommendations to the administration.
The state government established a high-level committee led by renowned Odia writer Pratibha Ray to review the ideas. Before creating a list of suggested modifications, the committee thoroughly examined the proposals and historical documents.

The committee's suggestions were made public for a month to gather input from stakeholders and citizens in an attempt to promote openness and public involvement. The panel finalised the updated spellings and sent its recommendations to the government after taking the replies into account.
The action is intended to strengthen Odisha's language legacy and cultural identity, according to chief secretary Anu Garg.The formal execution of the modifications is made possible by the Cabinet's consent. In order to request that central agencies like the Survey of India, Indian Railways, Department of Posts, Registrar General, Census Commissioner of India, and other pertinent ministries and departments update their official records, the state government will shortly publish a notice in the Gazette and notify the Ministry of Home Affairs of approved revisions," she told reporters.

The procedure is comparable to earlier renaming initiatives carried out throughout India, wherein states have attempted to harmonise official nomenclature with regional linguistic customs.
Many significant Indian cities and locations have returned to their original names during the previous few decades, such as Bombay becoming Mumbai, Calcutta becoming Kolkata, Madras becoming Chennai, Bangalore becoming Bengaluru, and Orissa being formally renamed Odisha in 2011.
The Orissa (Alteration of Name) Act and the Constitution (113th Amendment) Act, which Parliament approved, changed the state's name from Orissa to Odisha in response to calls to make the state's English name more similar to how it is pronounced in Odia.
Place names are stores of history, language, and cultural memory in addition to being geographical markers, according to Arabinda Kumar Padhee, additional chief secretary of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department.