A road in the State capital city of Bhubaneswar was named after Mother Teresa, coinciding with her canonisation ceremony at the Vatican on Sunday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik dedicated the flyover road linking Satya Nagar and Cuttack-Puri road in her memory. The road was named as Saint Mother Teresa Road.
Patnaik said Mother Teresa was an angel to the distressed and the diseased.
“I pay my heartfelt tributes to Mother Teresa on her canonisation as Saint Mother Teresa,” said Patnaik.
“She has got many awards from many countries including Bharat Ratna, Nobel Peace Prize and her beatification as 'The Blessed'. And finally, the Sainthood comes to her today. But the awards and recognitions never mattered to her,” added the Chief Minister.
Urging people to take a leaf from her book of compassion and service, and work for the poor and distressed, Patnaik called on people to work for the dignity of every human being and the people around us.
The decision to name the road after Mother Teresa was taken by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation at the request of Odisha Catholic Bishops’ Council (OCBC).
Housing and Urban Development Minister Pushpendra Singh Deo, Bhubaneswar MlAs Bijay Mohanty and Priyadarshi Mishra, BMC Mayor Anant Narayan Jena and Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Archbishop Chairman John Barwa were present.
In Odisha, the Missionaries of Charity, the organisation created by Mother Teresa, has 18 houses. She had first visited Bhubaneswar in 1974 and met the then Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy and Governor Akbar Ali Khan. Since then she visited Odisha several times.
Smt Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust (SNSMT) chairman Suparno Satpathy in statement claimed that not many know that it is here in Bhubaneswar that Mother Teresa for the first time on a public platform had been addressed as Saint Mother Teresa and it was done by none other than the then Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy. This took place nearly four and a half decades ago.