bhubaneswar in a bid to promote odia language the higher education department has issued a letter to the principals of the government colleges asking them not to charge fees other than hostel fees from students studying odia as elective and honours subjects in plus iii level this direction will come into effect from this educational year 201819 students opted for odia language in plus iii will not pay fees except the hostel dues said srikant prusty additional secretary of higher education department in his letter to the principalson december 26 last year the state cabinet chaired by chief minister naveen patnaik at puri had taken several decisions to promote odia language it had decided to waive fees for studying odia at the graduate and postgraduate level in colleges and universities it had also taken several other decisions including conducting a world conference on odia language in every five years the department implemented the decision by issuing a direction on friday to the colleges to waive the fees the fresh direction will help around 30000 students of different colleges of the state normally the colleges collect between rs 1500 and rs 2000 as admission fees from the students official sources saidstudents hailed the step taken by the state government rajat parida a second year odia honours student of rajdhani college here said it will reduce the burden on the poor students hundreds of poor students face difficulties to pay the admission and other college fees but this decision will give them a sigh of relief now more students will choose this course he added the cabinet has also approved a plan to ease the criteria for getting byasakabi fakir mohan scholarship for students the government has started the process to provide the fakir mohan senapati scholarship to plus ii and plus iii students securing high mark in odia they are entitled to get rs 20000 as scholarship amountthe state government is planning to increase number of teachers in odia departments in colleges and universities and facilitate more research in this field the government will also organise workshops in colleges and universities to promote odia language and literature it will give emphasis on translation of odia books to other languages and give prizes to the people or organization for promoting the language