The Chief Minister's Office of Odisha announced on Saturday, 13 June 2026 that the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, approved a set of administrative decisions covering place-name rectification, relief for street vendors, and a revision of honoraria for law commission members.

Context

The cabinet meeting cleared a proposal to correct the English spellings of 64 locations across 26 districts of Odisha and to restore their authentic Odia names. The move addresses longstanding inconsistencies between official romanised spellings and the original Odia pronunciation and script, a concern that linguistic advocates and local communities have raised for years.

Such corrections carry practical weight: place names appear on revenue records, railway stations, national highway boards, and government databases. Mismatches between official English spellings and Odia originals have historically caused confusion in legal documents and identity certificates for residents of those areas.

Policy Backdrop

The cabinet also waived stamp duty on mortgage deeds executed under the PM Svanidhi scheme for street vendors. The Pradhan Mantri SVANidhi scheme was launched by the central government in 2020 to provide collateral-free working-capital loans to urban street vendors who were economically disrupted by pandemic-related restrictions.

By exempting mortgage agreements under this scheme from stamp duty, the Odisha government reduces a transactional cost that had acted as a barrier for low-income vendors seeking formal credit. Several Indian states have paired central credit schemes with such state-level fiscal concessions to improve last-mile uptake among marginalised borrowers.

Stakeholders and Impact

Three distinct groups stand to benefit from the cabinet's decisions. Odia-speaking communities in the 26 affected districts gain official recognition of their localities' authentic names, which carries both cultural and administrative significance. Street vendors — among the most economically vulnerable urban workers — will face lower transaction costs when accessing PM Svanidhi loans, potentially improving credit uptake.

The cabinet also revised the honorarium structure for non-official full-time members of the Odisha State Law Commission, raising the monthly honorarium from ₹75,000 to ₹1,20,000. The Law Commission advises the state government on legislative and legal reforms; the revision is intended to attract and retain qualified legal professionals in these advisory roles. Periodic upward revisions of this kind are a standard administrative practice across Indian state commissions.

What's Next

Implementation will require coordinated updates across revenue, transport, and survey departments to reflect the corrected place names in official maps, land records, and signage. The effectiveness of the stamp-duty waiver will be measured by the uptake of PM Svanidhi loans among Odisha's street-vendor community in the months ahead.

The decisions signal CM Majhi's administration's intent to blend cultural assertion — restoring Odia linguistic identity to official geography — with targeted economic welfare measures for informal workers, while also strengthening the state's legal advisory infrastructure.