BHUBANESWAR: Padma Shri award winner Daitari Naik of Baitarani village under Banspal block of Keonjhar district is once again in news as Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the tribal man in his popular ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio programme on Sunday.
Describing him as a true ‘Karmayogi’, the Prime Minister said, “Today as we head towards a new India, we want to honour those who are doing their work at the grassroot level without any care for a reward. They, by their diligence, are bringing positive changes in the lives of others in myriad ways.”
Talking about the 70-year-old tribal, the Prime Minister said, “You must have heard about Odisha’s Daitari Naik, who is not nicknamed the ‘Canal Man of Odisha’ for nothing. Naik chiselled through the mountain literally with his hands and carved a three km long canal in his village to put to rest the problem of irrigation and water for ever.”
The Keonjhar man is one of the three Padma awardees from Odisha this year. The other two winners are Kamala Pujari, a tribal woman of Patraput village in Koraput for her contribution in the field of agriculture and D Prakash Rao, a tea stall owner of Cuttack, known for working tirelessly towards the development of slum children.
It took Daitari 22 years to cut through the mountain and finally in 2018, he could bring water from Karatakata Nullah of Gupta Ganga to irrigate around 100 acres of land in his village. His three brothers and two nephews chipped in to materialise his dream.
The Prime Minister said the people are inquisitive about the Padma awardees this year as these people are not on the front page of a magazine or newspaper or on TV screens. They are far removed from the world of glitter and glare and do not care about name or fame but simply believe in toiling at the proletarian level. “They believe in living in the manner as preached by the shloka of Srimadbhagvad Gita ‘Yoga: Karmasu Kaushalam’, or excellence in action is yoga,” he said.
Paying respect to the jawans who laid their lives in terror attack at Pulwama, the Prime Minister said, “The country salutes the indomitable courage of Meenaji, wife of martyr Prasanna Sahu of Jagatsinghpur, Odisha. She has vowed to send her only son to join the CRPF.” The Prime Minister also paid rich tribute to Birsa Munda for his contribution to the freedom movement of the country.