Rich tributes were paid to the four freedom fighters who had laid down their lives while taking part in an anti-British procession during the Quit India Movement at Kalamatia under Bari block in Jajpur district on the Raksha Bandhan day in 1942.
Bari Block Development Officer Kahnucharana Mallick, Bari block Chairperson Bharati Behera and Vice-Chairman Hemanta Mohapatra, Saheed Smruti Committee convenor Brundaban Samal and others offered their tributes to the freedom fighters at Kalamatia.
“On 22nd August 1942 on the Raksha Bandhan day, police gunned down Saunti Mallick of Srirampur, Sananda Swain, Hadibandhu Panda of Krushnanagar and Mayadhar Bhuyan of Hatasahi and injured ten near a pond at Kalamatia, said Brunaban Samal, a retired headmaster and researcher of Bari.
To remember the sacrifice of four martyrs in 1975, some villagers had erected a Sahid Stambha (martyr tower) at the spot, where the four were shot dead. The BDO promised to build statues of all the four martyrs at Kalamatia soon.