In the year 1982 after Matriculation when I got admitted into Intermediate classes in the Dhenkanal College, I used to join RSS camps for a few days.
I decided to leave the camps as their motto didn’t resonate with me. In the year 2002 I gave the candidature of my mother for Sarpanch post in the panchayat election in Talmul in Angul district with Congress support. But finally in the Panchayat the Congress was divided into two groups and the BJD candidate won.
After that in 2008, I supported a corporator candidate in BMC election. My aim was to visit each and every individual’s house and develop intimacy in our area, VSS Nagar. Till 2020, I did not join any political party and continued to do my social service unconditionally.
I actively participated in Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch and Police Commissionerate, Regional Branch, Utkal Sammilani Central Committee and Mancheswar Industrial Estate Branch, VSS Nagar Durga Puja Committee and Devlopment Committee and Odisha Voluntary Blood Donors’ and Motivators’ Association. Till date I never visited any political party office.
On August 23, 2020 evening I got many congratulations messages from many of my friends and known political persons, but I could not understand the reason behind those messages.
I asked one of them the reason and got to know that our beloved MLA Bhubaneswar(North) and the BJD Bhubaneswar District president Susanta Kumar Rout has appointed me as the adviser of BJD Bhubaneswar District Committee with the approval of Chief Minister and party president Naveen Patnaik. After that I consulted many of my political friends and also took some time to think and rethink about it and finally accepted the position.
That was my formal induction in the BJD. As the Utkal Sammilani life member, former central committee treasurer, branch committee president and chief editor of Samachara Patrika I had observed the Biju Janata Dala activities in last 20 years.
In his fifth time in power, the five major works done by the Chief Minister were quite encouraging. Firstly he initiated the Odia Lipi Sikhya centers outside Odisha in the State of Jharkhand, Chhatishgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. These centers were started in the year 2003-04 and are still continuing.
Now more than 600 centres are running and yearly 20,000 students are able to read and write in Odia language. In the second term as Chief Minister, with a mission to develop Odia language, he started the Odia Bhasha Pratisthana in our State. In his third term he successfully changed the name of our State from Orissa to Odisha and also in this time the Odia language got the classical status, which truly gave an Odia accent to the name of our State. In the fourth term the Odisha Government amended the Language Act 1954 to promote Odia language in Government offices and in his fifth term, Patnaik gave the status of State Song to “Bande Utkala Janani,” which was an extreme proud moment for all Odias, and also the State anthem is now be a part of the high school curriculum.
If we will discuss about the installation of statues of Odia eminent persons and freedom fighters, the credit goes to Naveen Patnaik and his Government. Before the year 2000, in our State only the central leaders’ statues were installed, except Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das’s statue.
But after 2000 to till date more than 300 statues of Odia eminent persons were installed. This was only made possible because of the love and commitment for the motherland by the Naveen Government and the ruling BJD. In Bhubaneswar more than 50 statues of Odia eminent persons were installed during his time. And the Department of Culture is planning to instal at least 10 big statues of Odia eminent persons every year.
Not only this, Naveen Patnaik as the Chief Minister has been always attending the garlanding functions inside the Assembly premises without any fail. Here I can say one thing that if we will verify the last 20 years data, Patnaik is the first Chief Minister to garland the highest number of times the statues and the second person to do the same.
I can strongly say this because, the person who has garlanded the the statues of our freedom fighters and eminent persons many time is none other than me. During the Corona period too, we both garlanded the photos of eminent persons in our respective houses! This ritual of garlanding the statues of eminent personalities and freedom fighters on their birthdays and death anniversaries is an indirect way of remembering them and their noble work for our motherland and keeping them alive amongst us so that not even a single person in Odisha would forget their name and their contribution towards Odisha as well their sacrifices for which we today are living freely as well as globally recognized.
I am also involved in voluntary blood donation (VBD) since 2002. At that time the percentage of VBD was only nearly 12 % in our State. Under my leadership the Odisha Voluntary Blood Donors and Motivators Association was started in our State and different branches in every district.
Now I am also involved in the VBD in the name of “Jibana Aloka” with Police Commissionerate Red Cross. Our beloved Chief Minister, as the party president, also started many voluntary blood donation activities in our State, like in the name of “Jiban Bindu." He also opened one department i.e. “Mo Paribara” in his party to facilitate the VBD programme.
Similarly, a lot of works related to Red Cross are often carried out through the Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State branch and with the Police Commissionerate Red Cross branch. The love and support from the CM has always been there for Red Cross which can be clearly observed after he released Rs 44.5 crore to the Red Cross District Branches during this pandemic to help a huge number of people.
(Advisor, BJD, Bhubaneswar District Committee; Phone: 8984007600)