A joint forum of various organisations has demanded that political parties should include creating Bhubaneswar a separate revenue district in their manifestos for the upcoming elections.
 
The forum under the leadership of its convenor Dr Lingaraj Sahoo collected the signatures of the heads of 980 puja committees, Bhubaneswar Bali Jatra Committee, villagers of Bhubaneswar outskirts, Balipatna, Balianta and Nakhara in this regard.
 
"The capital city of Odisha deserves its due place to be declared as a new district because it is not only the State Capital of Odisha but it has its own historical and geographical reasons. Historical in the sense that it was famous in ancient history of Odisha as Sishupala Garh in the 1st Century BC which was the then capital city of Great Emperor Kharavela. Also, it was known as “Chudanga Garh” near Barang for the seat of different Ganga rulers of Kalinga in 11th Century AD. And we are fortunate that the existing Bhubaneswar City lies in between these two ‘Garhs’ and its population is ever rising. Not only that, culturally speaking, Bhubaneswar is the only capital city of the world which has had continuous temple building activities for at least a thousand of years, which is one of the distinctive characteristics of this ancient city," said the forum.
 
The demand for revenue district status to Bhubaneswar dates back to the period of creation of 13 districts, as at that time Justice Das Commission in its report had recommended for creation of Bhubaneswar as a revenue district. But, till date it has not been done though the entire Government machinery is functioning at Bhubaneswar and the Collectorate is functioning at Khordha. Hence, it causes administrative inconvenience for the millions of our populace who are inhabitants of this great city, it said further.
 

The forum argued that all over India, the capital cities of the country are basically separate revenue districts for not only convenience or better administration but has its own political significance and importance also. Giving details, it said the then Minister late Satyapriya Mohanty first proposed to make Bhubaneswar a district and set up many district level offices here. Later, the then Chief Minister late Nandini Satpathy also formed a committee under the chairmanship of a retired High Court Judge to accord Bhubaneswar the status of a district and the committee also recommended the Government to give Bhubaneswar the status of a district. Similarly, one of the senior administrators and former Chief Secretary Dr Ajit Kumar Tripathy and former Revenue Minister Surendra Kumar Nayak also proposed to Chief Minister late Biju Patnaik to accord Bhubaneswar the status of a district, it said.