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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ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.

The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.

Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.