In a sheer disrespect to eminent personalities of Odisha, the State government has made some striking errors while writing their names on the walls of Bhadrak and Dhamnagar towns.
While the name of former Odisha Chief Minister Dr Harekrushna Mahtab was written as Harekrushna Mohanty in Odia, the name of poet Banchanidhi Mohanty was written as Banchanidhi Das.
As per reports, the error in Mahtab’s name was first spotted on the wall murals of the Dhamnagar Urdu Primary School where the district administration wrote his name as Harekrushna Mohanty. It led to widespread resentment among the locals.
The error was later rectified by some local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members.
Similarly, the district administration erroneously wrote the name of eminent poet Banchanidhi Mohanty as Banchanidhi Das on wall murals at Bonth chhak in Bhadrak town.
Following outrage over the error, the name was erased from the walls.
Asked about the error, the mural painter said, “Nobody told me to write the names. The admin only told me to paint the picture of eminent personalities, I wrote the names searching the internet. There are too many pictures, so the mistake happened inadvertently.”
The district Collector said the errors will be rectified soon and action will be taken against the people responsible for it.
It is pertinent to mention here that the ongoing State government-sponsored World Odia Language Conference drew severe criticism from various quarters for wrongly pronouncing Kantakabi Laxmikant Mohapatra as ‘Kanthakabi’ several times during the inauguration of the event.
The World Odia Language Conference organised by the state government was inaugurated on February 3 in Bhubaneswar. While announcing the literary meet, the anchor on the stage was heard pronouncing Kantakabi as ‘kanthakabi’ several times.