BHUBANESWAR: As repeated requests of the Centre to the State Government for allotment of land for constructing a memorial in commemoration of Paika Rebellion went unheeded, representatives of a cultural organisation on Sunday sought the intervention of Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal.
A delegation led by senior BJP leader and president of National Council for Martial Arts and Culture Biswabhushan Harichandan met the Governor at Raj Bhawan and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention for allotment of land for construction of the proposed memorial.
Harichandan, who had recently requested Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to expedite the process of land allotment for the project, said the silence of the State Government is baffling.
The Government is yet to respond to the request of Union Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma and Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan for providing a 50-acre land, either in Khurda or in foothills of Barunei, to construct a permanent infrastructure on completion of 200 years of Paika Rebellion.
The Union Minister, who had written to the Chief Minister in March, is yet to receive a reply. He had also written to the Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University for setting up a chair in memory of ‘Paika Bidroha’.
While the Centre is ready to extend financial assistance for the project, the IOCL Trust has provided `60 crore for the proposed memorial.
Senior Congress leaders Suresh Kumar Routray, Dilip Srichandan, senior journalist Pradyumna Satpathy, Upsana Mohapatra, Mohan Sundar Dalsingh Ray, Prafulla Bahubalendra, Badrinarayan Patnaik and Surath Biswal were part of the delegation.