CUTTACK: While the entire State celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Tuesday, the Gandhi Smruti Peetha at Telengapentha on the outskirts of the Millennium City presented a sorry picture due to administrative apathy. Though Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) had chalked out a plan to renovate it as a tourist spot two years back, the memorial continues to languish in neglect.
Concerned over its plight, the district administration in 2016 entrusted the CMC with renovating the memorial where Mahatma Gandhi had spent a night on May 15, 1934 during his tour to Odisha. Spread over five acre of land, the memorial was lying neglected under the administrative control of Panchayati Raj department.
After taking charge of the memorial, the CMC decided to give a facelift to the site by setting up a library and installing a charkha (spinning wheel) along with books and rare photographs of the Father of the Nation.
It was also decided to disseminate valuable information on the greatest proponent of non-violence through various audio-visual means at the memorial’s interpretation centre besides beautifying its park under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme.
Though two years have passed, nothing has been done to restore the glory of the site. Sources said the interpretation centre, built at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore by the Tourism department in 2014, is yet to become functional. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation of the interpretation centre in 2011.
This apart, a portion of the memorial land has been encroached by the locals. A private school also functions at the site, sources said and added that steps are yet to be taken to evict the encroachers.