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Special status for ORC in doldrums

BHUBANESWAR: The long-standing demand for elevation of the State-owned Odissi Research Centre (ORC) into a centre of excellence has fallen into the deaf ears of the Centre.

There has been a feeling of frustration among the scholars and exponents of Odissi dance who have urged upon the State Government to take up the matter with the Central Government.

They have been demanding the Centre to upgrade ORC into a national centre of dance on par with the Kathak Kendra in New Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Manipuri in Imphal.

Former Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi president and eminent scholar of Odissi dance D.N. Patnaik and Chief Executive of the Odissi Research Centre and noted Odissi musician Ramahari Das had urged upon the State Government to take up the matter with the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi on a priority basis.

“This is a genuine demand that is being deliberately ignored by the Centre. Orissa’s politicians and the Government officials must put proper pressure to ensure its elevation,” pointed out Mr. Patnaik.

A year ago, Culture Minister Surya Narayan Patro and former union minister and Biju Janata Dal MP Braja Kishore Tripathy announced to take up the matter with the Centre while addressing the launching ceremony of the Naveen Kalakar Odissi dance festival in Bhubaneswar.

“As a result of their initiative, the matter was moved to the Centre. The then union culture secretary, who hailed from Orissa, had also evinced interest in the popular demand. But, subsequent silence on the part of the State Government had jeopardised the progress in the matter,” observed a senior officer in the Department of Culture.

While the Kathak Kendra of New Delhi, Kalakshetra of Chennai and Jawaharlal Nehru centre of Manipuri, Imphal have been declared as national centres, plans are afoot to set up similar centres for Chhau and Sattriya at Jamshedpur and Guwahati during the present plan period, revealed Mr. Patnaik,who, along with eminent dance gurus, was responsible for getting classical status for the dance form.

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