PATNA, Sept. 1 -- Neha Jha Mani, whose evocative Maithili poetry collection 'Banaras Aa Hum' has clinched this year's prestigious Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, is heartbroken over the crumbling state of Bihar's regional language academies. She argues that if these vital institutions were operating at full throttle, budding authors like herself wouldn't have to scramble for publishers-support would be readily at hand. Established in the 1970s with grand visions of preserving, nurturing and elevating Bihar's rich linguistic tapestry, these academies-for Maithili, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Angika, Bangla and Sanskrit-were meant to be powerhouses. Tasked with churning out textbooks for colleges and universities, crafting syllabi for civil services exams and championing cultural heritage, they've instead been reduced to shadows of their former selves. For the past two decades, chronic neglect has left them gasping for survival, starved of funds, staff and even basic infrastructure. Six academies crammed into just three tiny rooms at Patna's Rashtra Bhasha Parishad tell the pathetic tale of these prestigious institutions. With a skeleton crew of only 12 employees-against an approved strength of 90-they lack dedicated offices, digital resources or consistent funding. Book publications have been halted for the last two to three years due to dried-up grants from the state government. "The paltry financial aid barely covers salaries for our bare-bones staff," lamented one office bearer on condition of anonymity, adding that only two officials are heading all these academies as dirctors, but they never came to the office. The rot runs deeper. Since Nitish Kumar assumed the chief minister's chair nearly two decades ago, none of these academies has had a full-time director. They limp along without executive bodies, leading to absurd scenarios like auctioning off thousands of Bhojpuri and Magahi books simply for want of storage space. "It's a tragedy," said another officer. "We're failing our mandate spectacularly." Indrakant Jha, former director of the Maithili and Sanskrit Academies and current head of the Maithili Sahitya Sansthan, paints a grim picture of the fallout. Without these bodies firing on all cylinders, college and university curricula are adrift, often relying on subpar books due to absent standardization. "Syllabi for competitive exams and higher education aren't being updated properly," Jha explained, drawing from his experience as ex-head of Patna University's Maithili Department. The result? A generation of students shortchanged on quality resources in their mother tongues. Back in September 2022, CM Nitish Kumar dangled a lifeline: a shiny new Bihar Institute of Local Languages to consolidate and supercharge these academies. Fast-forward three years, and that promise remains a mirage-unfulfilled and gathering dust. However, recent developments offer a glimmer of hope. In March 2025, the Bihar government announced plans to unify eight language academies under a single governing body, aiming to streamline operations and bolster their role in preserving the state's linguistic heritage. Education Minister Sunil Kumar emphasized efforts to strengthen these institutions and integrate them into an umbrella framework, potentially addressing long-standing issues like funding and management. Yet, skeptics wonder if this is genuine reform or just another election-season band-aid. Experts point to a toxic cocktail of sporadic, inadequate funding and political interference that's choking these academies. It's a pattern echoing the woes of other cultural gems, like the Bihar State Archives, which also battle chronic underfunding and mismanagement. "This isn't just bureaucratic inertia-it's a deliberate sidelining of Bihar's soul," one linguist quipped. Former Bihar Legislative Council member and Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra, who has repeatedly flagged the resource crunch of these institutions in the legislature, blasts the government's inaction. "Books published by Maithili Academy had won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi awards for seven-eight years in a row in the past. By starving these academies of budgets, staff and leadership, we're eroding Bihar's vibrant linguistic diversity and its priceless contribution to India's cultural mosaic," Mishra thundered. Now, the Congress is turning up the heat, launching a campaign to resuscitate these institutions and positioning itself as the true guardian of heritage. In language-sensitive pockets of Bihar, this could sway voters weary of empty promises. As Neha Jha Mani's award shines a spotlight on Maithili's enduring allure-confirmed by the Sahitya Akademi as the 2025 Yuva Puraskar winner for her poetry-it's a stark reminder: Bihar's languages aren't just words on a page; they're the heartbeat of its identity. Will the latest unification push finally breathe life back into these academies, or will they fade into oblivion? The clock is ticking....