The Bhubaneswar Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) observed the Odia New Year Day as Odisha Heritage Day on Tuesday. Chapter convenor H Balakrishnan said the INTACH has been observing the day for more than a quarter century to create awareness about the glorious heritage of Odish among the youth.
The day started with an inter-school Odia elocution competition in which students of 20 schools participated. The subject was ‘Odisha’s Heritage- To be Conserved by Whom, Why and HowIJ’ While Saswatika Mohapatra of Vivekananda Shiksha Kendra won the first prize, Debiprasad Rath of Capital High School second prize and Ushashree Beheara of Vivekananda Shiksha Kendra and BN Shreevishesha of DAV School Chandrasekharpur jointly won the third prize.
Eminent poet Padma Vibhushan Sitakanta Mahapatra gracing the occasion as chief guest delivered a lecture on heritage. Calling upon citizens to conserve their own heritage, Mohapatra said that heritage is not a ‘frozen’ entity but evolves with time.
He was skeptic about the chances of Bhubaneswar being declared a World Heritage City by the Unesco, for which it is vying with many better contestants. The way the ancient relics of Sishupalgarh have been ‘conserved’ with concrete buildings obliterating whatever little was left shows the concern of the Government and the people, he said.
The same story is repeated ad nauseum in the case of all the temples of this “Mandira Malini”, with avaricious land-grabbers, builders encroaching precious heritage sites, he said. State convenor AB Tripathy informed that there are now eight INTACH chapters working in the State. Conservation work of 26 monuments are in progress by the INTACH Conservation Centre with Government funds, he said.
Mohapatra launched a website www.odishaheritage.com on this occasion. INTACH life member Jayant Kumar Dash, who created and manages the website, said he has been working on the site for the past 15 years and expressed thanks to Intach for launching it officially on the Odia New Year Day in the Nabakalebar year. Eminent artist and curator Ramahari Jena was bestowed the award of INTACH Gaurav.