ANGUL: A day after the controversial sculpture of former Odisha Chief Minister Nabakrushna Choudhury was removed from Gopabandhu Park here following backlash over the Gandhian leader’s attire, director of Culture department Ranjan Kumar Das said a new statue of the freedom fighter will be installed at an appropriate location in Angul town.
“I will hold discussions with the collector to find a suitable place within Angul municipality to set up a proper statue of the former chief minister of Odisha,” he said. Das led a team of eight government officials besides sculptors and architects who visited Gopabandhu Park and Baji Rout Chhatrabas in the town.
The team interacted with authorities the Chhatrabas including Choudhury’s daughter Krishna Mohanty on ways to develop the hostel. The hostel authorities presented a list of demands to the team for betterment of the facility. “We came here on the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to hold discussions on the chhatrabas and find out ways to develop it.
The authorities presented us a set of demands which will be put up before the government for approval,” Das said. He said Baji Rout Chhatrabas will emerge as a major tourist attraction of the state in future. The hostel will be developed on the lines of Suando and Satyabhamapur in Puri district.
Das said the chief minister was deeply concerned about the faulty statue of Nabakrushna Choudhury and had asked the team to rectify the mistake. Action will be taken against officials who approved it, he added.