Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday greeted people of Odisha on the occasion of Utkal Dibasa that is being observed with much pomp and grandeur across the State.
Modi took to micro-blogging site Twitter to convey his greetings.
"The entire country is proud of the leaders who contributed immensely for the development of State and country," said Modi in his tweet.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also extended his greetings to the people of the State on the occasion of Utkal Dibasa.
The foundation day of Odisha, also known as Utkal Dibasa was celebrated across the State on Sunday with a number of government and non-government organisations organising several programmes to mark the occasion.
Utkal Dibasa is observed to mark the formation of Odisha whісh wаѕ carved out οf combined Bengal-Bihar-Orissa province on April 1, 1936.
Orissa was given a status of separate linguistic state due to the efforts of Utkala Gaurav Madhusudan Das, Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das, Maharaja Shri Ramachandra Bhanjadeo, Maharaja Shri Krushna Chandra Gajapati, Raja Baikunthanath Dey, Fakir Mohan Senapati, Gangadhar Meher, and Gourishankar Ray.
The people from different walks of life paid tributes to the late leaders who played a key role in the formation of a separate Odisha.
In Cuttack, rich tributes to paid to Madhusudan Das at his samadhi at Gorakabar while a mini-marathon was also organised in the city.
On November 9, 2010, Parliament of India renamed Orissa as Odisha and Oriya language as Odia.
Noted sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik created a special sculpture at Puri to mark the occasion.