The Dakshin Odisha Sahitya Sameelani felicitated senior BJP leader and former Deputy Speaker of State Assembly Rama Chandra Panda at a ‘Writers’ Parliament’ held at Polasara under the presidentship of journalist Ambika Dash recently.
Panda was given a rousing reception before felicitated with a citation and a memento for spearheading the historic Mahanadi-Rushikullya River-linking movement in Ganjam and Gajapati districts in 2000.
Panda had submitted a comprehensive memorandum on Mahanadi-Rushikullya River linking in 2000 and had conducted a monolithic ‘Jala Sanjog Yatra” (Water-linking March) in March 2010 from Kasinagar of Gajapati district to Raj Bhavan, Bhubaneswar.
His relentless fight in creating public awareness to save Rushikullya and Mahanadi water through a river-linking project for the cause of the farmers of the State since 1986 finally yielded positive results in December 2015 when both the Center and the State Government accepted the proposal. Well-known writers Dandapani Mohapatra and Gounga Rout, Sammilani general secretary Bidyut Prabha Sahu were present. Around one hundred writers and poets from south Odisha attended the felicitation ceremony.
Panda too performed the role of a speaker in the Writers Parliament.