Bhubaneswar, Apr 01: People across the state celebrated the 81st foundation day of the state better known as ‘Utkal Divas’ with gaiety and fervor.
Odisha was formed as an independent state on language basis on April 1, 1936.
On this auspicious day, people of the state are recalling the contribution of many great social revolutionaries like Utkala Gouraba Madhusudan Das, Utkala Mani Gopabandhu Das, Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati, Pandita Nilakantha Das, Fakir Mohan Senapati, Gangadhar Meher and many others in making Odisha an independent state.
The state government, Utkal Sammilani and other socio-cultural organisations have scheduled many programmes to observe the day.
The Information and Public Relation Department of the state government will celebrate the state-level Odisha Divas Samaroh-2017 at Utkal Mandap at 6 pm today.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and a host of Ministers will grace the occasion.
Many singing and dancing stars including Rituraj, Sonam and Harihar would perform in the cultural programme.
On the other hand, the state unit of BJP is going to organize Bhavya Samaroh at Janta Maidan here.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Radhamohan Singh will attend the programme.
A musical program will also be held where people of Odisha would witness the live concert of Bollywood playback singer Udit Narayan.
Ms Kalinga AI