lenka bats for Dr Mahtab’s name
Decrying the move to name the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) after Biju Patnaik, senior Congress leader Kahnu Charan lenka has demanded that the premier agriculture university be named after its founder Dr Harekrushna Mahtab instead.
In a statement here, lenka said the OUAT was set up in 1960 when Dr Mahtab was the Chief Minister. Since then, the demand to name the university after him has been consistently made by many individuals, organisations and intellectuals.
“I have the highest regard for Biju Patnaik, who was an MlA at the time. If he was alive today, I am sure, he would not have liked the idea of the agriculture university being named after him,” lenka said.
Dubbing the proposal to name the OUAT after Biju Patnaik, reportedly approved at the Academic Council of the university, as ‘unrealistic and sycophantic’, lenka, a former Union Minister, has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the Board of Management of the university not to accept the proposal and, instead, name it after Dr Mahtab, its founder, if at all a rechristening of the institution is being contemplated. He is said to be seeking support for his demand.