In order to protect the monuments of antiquity and to safeguard the interests of the people of the heritage town Ganjam, the locals here formed the Ganjam Bikash Parishad.
The forum unanimously nominated Er Binod Padhi and social reformer Binod Mahapatra as its president and general secretary while trade union leader of the area Sankar Das was nominated as its advisor.
Besides, ten other prominent senior citizens, namely, Lingaraj Pattnaik, Santosh Gouda, Gourisankar Padhi, Girija Sankar Mohapatra, scribe Rabindra Kumar Panda, Councillor Aruna Kumar Panda, Swagat Nayak, former Councillor Durgamadhab Panigrahi, farmer leader Sudam Charan Behera (Malad) and G Santosh Reddy were taken as members of the newly formed Executive Council of the Parishad.
The Parishad in its first meeting held at Ganjam conveyed their heartfelt gratitude to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for according approval to a long cherished proposal of the people of Ganjam for development of historic fort “Pottagada,” a popular tourist destination under the initiatives of former Deputy Speaker Rama Chandra Panda.
The Parishad, among other things, further decided to undertake plantation of all-weather trees on both the sides of the road that leads to Pottagada stretching from the river basin of Rushikullya up to the National Highway point covering a distance of about two km for the benefit of the tourists.
The Parishad will draw the attention of the State Government for construction of a fly-over on the NH near the famous Sani Dev Temple, it was decided.
Similarly, the attention of the Government was also drawn for establishment of jetty on the bank of river Rushikullya. The Parishad also demanded stoppage of the Hirakhand and Tirupati Express trains at Ganjam Railway Station and introduction of a new DMU daily train directly from Brahmapur to Puri within a month's time, keeping the growing public perceptions in mind.
If the railway authorities do not heed to the genuine demands within a month, the forum will resort to a dharana, the members cautioned.