Puri: One year after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for Odia University at Bakula Bana in SakhiGopal in Puri district, the land is scheduled to be transferred to the education department Thursday.
People are still skeptical about the dream of an Odia University at Bakula Bana, the land of Panchasakha (Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, Acharya Harihara, Pandit Nilakantha Dash, Pandit Godabarish Mishra and Pandit Krupasindhu) under Satyabadi block in Puri district coming true as nothing has been done on this project whose foundation stone was laid by the CM.
It is learnt that Thursday has been fixed for acquiring the land for the university.
The CM had laid the foundation stone for the university October 9, 2018. It was then decided that the university would be set up on the land of Satyabadi Gopinath Deb. 28.74 acres of land at Phula Alasha mouza under Satyabadi tehsil was also earmarked for the same.
Since the owner of the land is Satyabadi Gopinath Deb, the state government had applied Endowment Commission to buy the land, in accordance with section-19 of Odisha Hindu Endowments Act. But the residents of Satyabadi opposed the move as Bakula Bana has been deeply associated with rituals of SakhiGopal and Lord Jagannath. They had requested the Collector to save Bakukla Bana.
A meeting was convened May 31 and it was decided that Bakula Bana would be excluded from the original layout and the university would be set up on the remaining 9.60 acres of land.
The Higher Education Department has sanctioned Rs 11,35,58,000 for the project. The State Law Department has also given its green signal for the project following the nod from the Endowment Commissioner, leading to the beginning of the process for transfer of land.
Sources said that the Education Department has deposited the money with the Union Bank’s SakhiGopal branch October 4, and the state government has also exempted the stamp duty. The registration will be done at Sub-Registrar office at SakhiGopal, Thursday, it was learnt.
On behalf of Gopinath Deb, the deed will be signed by SakhiGopal temple’s executive officer Kailash Chandra Mishra and additional secretary of the education department who is also Odia University’s officer on special duty. Jayant Kumar Sarangi will act as the buyer.
However, the inordinate delay in this regard has not gone down well with the convener of Odisha Bhasha Sangram Samiti Shankarshan Parida.
“The present government is a government of promises. The twenty-point programme passed at a special meeting dedicated to Odia language and literature in Puri has been ignored. It is not as much shameful to inaugurate the Odia University among political leaders and workers without conferring with the members of Heritage Cabinet, formed for Language, Literature and Culture and ministerial committee for Odia language as the work on the university not progressed even an inch even after one year of foundation stone laying ceremony,” he rued.
PNN
