The annual function of Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti (UBSS) was held on March 8 here. Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal inaugurated the function.
UBSS Secretary D Krushna Gopal gave a detailed account of the activities undertaken by the Samiti which was registered in 1982 immediately after the Cuttack flood.
He said the organisation participated in relief and rescue operations in 1999 Super Cyclone, Hudhud, Titli and Fani, besides earthquake of Bhuj in Gujarat and the thunder shower of Uttarakhand.
The organisation also joined plantation drive, computer literacy programme and runs hostels for IIT examination aspirants in collaboration of Shiksha Vikash Samiti, Odisha and Resonance, Bangaluru, he told.
For the last several years we have been providing different Seva during the Rath Yatra at Puri with free medicines and ambulance. The Samiti has provision to house patients and their attendants at Olatapur, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, he informed.
Prof Lal was of very high opinion about the services by UBSS and gave different examples from Gita, Bhagabata, Vedas and other mythological books. Jagabandhu Mishra, former Editor, Rashtradeep, discussed how the volunteers reached the affected people even at odd hours.
The Governor gave away the Utkalmani Seva Samman to Padmacharan Nayak, a nonagenarian freedom fighter and Gandhian for his crusade against liquor.