The first two-day National Odia Swabhiman Sammilani was inaugurated at at Dharmanagar here on Saturday. The conference was held under the joint collaboration of the Mahan Sangh and the International Odia Swabhiman Pratisthan, Delhi.
Revenue Minister Surjya Narayan Patro, who was the chief guest, recalled how Odia civil servants are occupying high positions in different States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh.
Academician Sarat Chandra Mahapatra was felicitated on the occasion. In the afternoon session, a seminar on Role of Odisha in National Politics was held which social worker Dr Bhagban Prakash chaired. Among others, former Union Minister Braja Kishore Tripathy, Supreme Court advocate and chief of Build India Group Biraja Mahapatra; Millennium Network director Sanjay Kumar Majhi, Jajpur MP Mohan Jena, Utkal Prasang editor Hussain Rabi Gandhi and several MPs and MlAs participated.
The second session was on “Problems of Odias Residing outside the State and Their Solution” at which Prof Debendra Rout, social worker Manoj Khatua, journalist Sambhunath Das, Prof PSN Patra and many others spoke. The third session was presided over by Mahan Sangh president. Higher Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra, former Union Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, BMC Mayor K Madhavi, Delhi-based scribe Kishore Dwibedi, Dr Bipin Bihari Mishra and several political leaders and social activists participated in the deliberations.
On the concluding day of the Sammilani on Sunday, three seminars “Contributions of Odia language, literature”, “Odishan Economy” and “Role of RTI for Corrupt-Free and Healthy Administration” were held. Former Minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan was the chief guest while former Minister Panchanan Kanungo was the chief speaker.
The valedictory function was addressed by Rajya Sabha Joint Secretary General Satyanarayan Sahu and Berhampur University Vice-Chancellor Prof Deepak Behera. They stressed the need of inclusion of topics like Odias’ pride and contributions, Odia customs and traditions and Odia art and culture in the curriculums so that the present generation of students would be able to know what their predecessors and forefathers have done.