New Delhi, September 21, 2019: Under the banner of the KosalSahityaSanskruti Academy and Kosal Heritage Trust, hundreds of intellectuals and activists participated in a week-long campaign for the promotional of mother language of Western Orissa and raised the demand for a separate Kosal State based on its socio-cultural and economic conditions. The campaigned concluded today.
KosalSahityaSanskruti Academy and the Kosal Heritage Trust activists have raised serious concerns about the socio-cultural and economic plight of Western Orissa and demanded a separate state with constitutional status to their mother language (Subaranapur).
“Primary education is not being imparted in mother languages and that is adversely affecting the intellectual development of children of Western Orissa. For the development of a widely used language of western Orissa, neither the state nor the Central government has made any positive moves to promote it. The language remained neglected since decades and the people of the area suffered a lot in terms of inclusive growth,” Subaranapur -based Academy and Kosal Heritage Trust said in a statement issued it today.
“It is a pity to note that due to this neglect, even cultural heritage and legacies of the Western Orissa is being disappeared. Under the rule of Orissa, human and natural resources of the region is being continuously exploited and that also without any benefits for the locals,” said Gorekhnath Sahu, Secretary-General, Kosal Sahitya Sanskruti Academy.
“Given the situation, if our region is ruled by the Orissa government for another century, it will amount to slavery once again,” he rued.
“It is also a fact that without a separate state, the Centre’s slogan of ‘ Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,’ would be meaningless and an unfulfilled daydream,” Sahu emphasised.
The Academy and the Trust have launched a massive campaign in New Delhi. A week-long campaign concluded at JantarMantar today. During the campaign, activists organised several programmes highlighting the plight of Western Orissa under the current state government. Noted literati and Academy President Padam Shri Dr Srinivas Udgata spearheaded the campaign which was supported by galaxy other prominent personalities of the region including social activist, advocate & journalist Nimai Charan Naik, Treasure of the Academy, Educationist and writer Braja Mohan Dani among others.
They also celebrated NuakhaiJuhar, an Agri festival of Western Orissa, on September 15 and met several union ministers, policymakers, intellectuals to apprise them about socio-economic and cultural conditions of the region and sought their support for the promotional mother language and a separate state.
The Kosal state movement is an effort by people of the Western Orissa region of India to secede from the state of Orissa based on art, culture and language. Western Orisa is a territory in the western part of the state. It includes 10 districts- Bargarh, Bolangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Sundargarh and Athamallick Sub-division of Angul district.
People of Western Orissa mainly intelligentsia and various social organisations are demanding the creation of a separate Kosal state, comprising the western part of the state.
