A three-day-long 66th Capital Foundation Day celebrations was kick-started by the Capital Day Celebration Committee (CDCC) here on Sunday. For the first time, the State’s Governor attended the celebrations on the inaugural day as the chief guest.
The celebrations began with a civilian parade by the CRPF jawans and the OSAP personnel and motorcycle daredevil shows by students of the Maharishi College of Natural law.Then, Governor Dr SC Jamir felicitated 12 persons with the Rajdhani Gaurab Samman for excellence in their respective fields of activities.
Those who were honoured were Dr Ashok Mohapatra, senior advocate Sidharth Das, social activist Dr Badrinath Patnaik, actor Minaketan Das, actress Tandra Ray, retired bureaucrat Rabinarayan Senapati, sportsperson Valina Valentina, industrialist Bhagatram Gupta, nurse Rojaline Seth, postman Atulya Kumar Panda, Traffic Constable Harekrushna Satpathy and sweeper Ganga Ghadai.
Guest of the celebration Bhubaneswar ADM Manoj Kumar Patnaik launched an online search portal KhojaKhoji.com for the capital city. CDCC president Pradosh Patnaik, vice-president Pradyumna Kumar Mohanty and general secretary Sanat Mishra coordinated the event.The celebrations will culminate on April 15. Many events like cultural programmes will be organised during the rest two days.
Notably, first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the capital city’s foundation-stone in 1948. Punjab capital Chandigarh and temple city Bhubaneswar were designed in the same era of the post-Independence India. Bhubaneswar was planned by German architect Dr Otto Koenigsberger.