Members of Rajkanika –based Sahid Smruti Sansad and schoolchildren last week paid rich tributes to the local martyrs at Meghapur Tower under Rajkanika block.
They remembered the heroic deeds of Basu Sethy of Tentulikoil, Bisuni Madhual of Bartani village and peasant leader Ananda Chandra Jena.
According to Damodar Dhal, a retired school teacher of Tentulikoil, Basu Sethy and Bisuni Madhual were the first martyrs of the non-cooperation movement called by Mahatma Gandhi in the State, who laid down their lives while fighting against the tyranny of the British and Raja of Kanika in 1922.
In order to oppose 64 types of illegal tax collection by despotic king of Kanika Rajendra Narayan Bhanjdeo, who was a supporter of Britishers, a peasant movement was organised in 1922 at Rajkanika.
Being inspired by peasant leader Ananda Chandra Jena and his revolutionary literary work Dukhini Kanika, Basu Sethy and Bisuni Madhual also joined in the peasant movement.
On April 23, 1922, about two thousand peasants under the leadership of Basu Sethy and Bisuni Madhual had made an attempt courageously to prevent the British police and the army of Raja of Kanika to enter the village to collect taxes. As a result, the police had opened fire and killed both Basu and Bisuni near the Bebarta pond at village Meghapur, said Sukanta Kumar Das, the Secretary of Sahid Smruti Sansad of Kanika.
In order to remember the heroic deeds of the duo martyrs, the locals erected a martyr tower at the same spot, where the martyrs were shot dead in the British police bullet, with the financial aid provided by the former Chief Minister Dr Harekrushna Mahatab in the year 1980.