Bhubaneswar: In recognition of the sacrifice and services rendered by the COVID Warriors who have lost their lives fighting the pandemic, Odisha government has decided to construct a 'COVID Warrior Memorial' at the Biju Patnaik Park in Bhubaneswar.
This is being done to pay tribute to the COVID-19 warriors who died after contracting the infection and keep alive the memory of the supreme sacrifice made by these frontline workers.
The proposed Memorial will be inaugurated on Independence Day this year.
COVID-19 is once in a century pandemic and in order to keep the service and sacrifice in the memory of people, the government has decided to construct a COVID-19 Warrior Memorial, additional chief secretary to the health and family welfare, P K Mohapatra said.
The Works Department has been declared as the Nodal Department for construction of COVID Warrior Memorial. They will engage an architect to finalise the design and structure of the said memorial and take approval from the competent authority. The cost of the construction will be met out of the budgetary provisions of the Works Department.
Many people including doctors, health workers, police personnel, teachers and sanitation workers have laid down their lives while working as frontline workers during the pandemic.
Odisha DGP Abhay said that 48 police personnel have laid down their lives in the Covid battle. He said police personnel in the State have also donated the highest number of plasma units for the treatment of the critical COVID-19 patients.
The police personnel form 46 per cent of the total plasma donors in the state, he said. Of the 2,166 plasma donors in Odisha, 1002 are Odisha Police personnel.