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Naveen calls for empowerment of the poor

— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik receiving the guard of honour at the Independence Day parade in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

BHUBANESWAR: The 62nd Independence Day celebration passed off peacefully in different parts of the State without any report of violence with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik unfurling the tricolour here on Friday.

At all district headquarter towns the day was celebrated with large number of people flocking the parade grounds. The weather gods were kind and the morning’s events unfolded as per the schedule Mr. Patnaik arrived at the venue at about 9 a.m. and immediately kicked off the proceedings by hoisting the national flag. School and college students, police and traffic personnel and members of other services presented fabulous parade.

Tight security ring was thrown around the parade venue at PMG Square. Commissionerate of Police had deployed several police personnel in civil dresses to keep eye on disturbing elements. All police officials especially remained alert to the threat of self-immolation by a group of persons.

Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy, Director General of Police Gopal Chandra Nanda and Home Secretary T. K Mishra were present at the venue while Mr. Patnaik presented his address. Chief Minister said independence was meaningless if poorer section of the society was not economically empowered.

“If we succeed in addressing issues of poor, then only the society will taste the real spirit of independence. We must work towards warding off poverty and Independence Day should be day of resolve for us,” Mr. Patnaik said. He remembered all freedom fighters, who laid down their lives towards cause of nation’s independence.

Mr. Patnaik refrained from making any announcements in the wake of code of conduct which was in force for upcoming urban local body polls. Similar was the situation with all the ministers who addressed district-level Independence Day ceremony.

While Woman and Child Development Minister Pramila Mullick was present at the district headquarter town of Keonjhar, Agriculture Minister Surendra Nath Nayak addressed the gathering at Puri.

Independence Day was also celebrated on campus of different educational institutes Buxi Jagabandhu English Medium School and KIIT University.

In Koraput drizzle started while the children from different schools were displaying dances in the police parade ground after the national flag was hoisted by the District Collector Balakrishna Sahu, the drizzle caused serious worries for the people and mostly the children who were getting drenched standing in the open field.

Looking at this, Mr. Sahu and Deepak Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Koraput too came down of the stage that was covered with rain shield and sat in the open air expressing their solidarity with the children to face the odds of the monsoon. Earlier Mr.Sahu took the salute of the spectacular march past taken out by 32 participating contingents in the ground .

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