Bhubaneswar, May 1: The Odisha Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill making Odia language mandatory on signboards of all shops and commercial establishments.

The Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and its rule provides for all shops and establishments to comply within a month or pay fines ranging between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 for a first violation and rising to between Rs 2,000 and Rs 25,000 for the second violation.

The Assembly also passed Odisha Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which makes penal provisions for the government officials for not using Odia language in official work.

In order to encourage maximum use of Odia language, it has also the provision to provide rewards to the officials, according to the bill.

In August 2016, the state government enacted the rules of the Odisha Official Language Act, 1954, formally bringing it into force for official work in Odia language.

A total of eight Bills were passed in the budget session of the Assembly, which culminated on Tuesday, four days ahead of schedule.

The budget session was held in two phases beginning on March 20.

On Monday, the house passed the Odisha Appropriation Bill, 2018, allowing the state government to utilise the annual Budget of Rs 1.22 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

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Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.

The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.

"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.

The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.

There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.

Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.

The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.