Orissa to prepare vision document on heritage sites

Bhubaneswar, May 22 (UNI) The Orissa government will soon come out with a new vision document on various heritage sites in the state to ensure their proper conservation and make them tourist attraction sites.

State Culture Minister Suryanarayan Patra, who held a high level meeting of the department, later told newsmen that the Superintendent of State Archaeology Department(SAD) had been directed to submit a report on the status of all heritage sites in and around the temple city of Bhubaneswar.

He said the government would soon keep the heritage sites free from encroachment and make them an important tourist destination.

If necessary, the government, Mr Patra said, would file an FIR and seek the intervention of the court to evict the encroachers from the heritage sites.

The Culture Minister also directed the SAD Superintendent to prepare a report on the Ananda Bhawan, the birth place of Biju Patnaik, to be submitted to the Centre to declare it as a memorial museum.

The state government had already submitted proposal before the Centre to declare the birthplace of Madhusudan Das, Gopabandhu Das, Fakir Mohan Senapati and Bagha Jatin, all illustrious sons of Orissa who had achieved name and fame in literature, political field and freedom movement as memorial museum.

All these proposals were pending for the last two years before the Centre.

Mr Patra indicated that the government would submit fresh proposals of some more illustrious leaders of Orissa such as Laxman Nayak, Vir Surendra Sai and Gangadgar Meher, whose houses would be converted into memorial museum.

The Culture Minister said all District Collectors would be asked to identify the heritage sites in their respective districts and submit a report to the government so that necessary steps would be taken for their conservation in future.

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