Bhubaneswar, Apr 14: On Thursday, the birthday of the Odisha’s capital was celebrated with much pomp and gaiety.
To mark the 69th foundation day of Bhubaneswar, a parade was conducted ahead of the Odisha Legislative Assembly involving participation of students’ from various schools and colleges. The Flag hoisting ceremony was held and 2 bands of Odisha Police along with school children of 48 schools took out the parade. At the college level, St Xavier International College, Patia stood first, while DAV Public School, Unit 8 stood second. Likewise, at the High school girls level, Govt Girls’ High School, Unit 1 stood first, SM Girls’ High school, Old Town stood second and Saty Sai High school, Unit 3 stood third. At the boys level, Govt Boys High school, Unit 8 stood first followed by Govt Boys High school, Unit 9 that came second and at the third position it was tie between Capital High school, Unit 3 and Govt High school Power House colony, Unit 8. Lastly, at the public school wing, St Xavier High school (Boys wing), Khandagiri came first, DAV Public School, Pokhariput and DM High school, Unit 9 came second together and St Xavier High school (Girls wing), Khandagiri came third. Special Prizes were awarded to Odisha Skating Academy, Bhubaneswar and CRPF Band, Bhubaneswar.
Assembly Speaker Niranjan Pujari took the salute of the parade and also inaugurated the three-day long “Bhubaneswar Mahostav” that has begun since yesterday.
On the other side, Union Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan conferred Rajdhani Gaurav Samman award to 13 persons for their contributions in various field, they were Dr Surendra Nath Pasupalak for his outstanding contribution in the field of Science, NB Chainy for his extraordinary brilliance in law, Social activist for the challenged, Shruti Mohapatra for her contribution in the field of social work, Shruti stated to media that with this honour, more responsibilities have added up on shoulders which need to be undertaken for the betterment of the city, Satyabrat Tripathy and Seetal for their work in the film industry, Rita Ekka for her outstanding work in health service, Sivapada Swain for being an eminent administrator in the field of administration, Shantikar Sa for being an hard-working post man, Parikhita Pradhan for his outstanding contribution in the field of traffic services, Jumali Digal for being an eminent sweeper, Rashmiranjan Parida for his outstanding contribution in the sports field, Sarat Kumar Sahoo to be an eminent industrialist and Dr Chittaranjan Pani for being the eminent music director. 12 other persons received the Rajdhani Shree Samman.
The Culture Department organized various other cultural programmes in honour of the day. Other ministers such as Tourism & Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda, Transport Minister Ramesh Majhi, Forest Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, School & Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra, Dr Prasanna Patsani, MLA Priyadarshi Mishra, Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, Capital Celebration Day Committee President Pradosh Patnaik, Vice-President Pradyumna Mohanty and General Secretary Sannat Mishra who were also present on the occasion offered flowers to the foundation plaque of the city in front of the State Assembly.
It must be remembered that the foundation stone of the capital city was laid by our first PM, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru on Apr 13, 1948.
