By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR:On behalf of the people of Odisha and the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP State General Secretary Shri Bingrachi Narayan Tripathi has thanked the Chief Minister and the state government for naming the government medical college and hospital established in Phulbani, district Kandhamal, after Vedanta Keshari Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, announcing an assistance of Rs. 13 crore to the Kanyashram established by him to further highlight his memory, and transferring the responsibility of investigating the theft of files related to the murder of Swamiji from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to the Crime Branch.
In a press conference held at the state office, Shri Tripathi said that Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati had been working continuously for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of Kandhamal district, known as the Upanta Anchal, for more than 40 years.
Swamiji made continuous efforts to spread education among them for the development and progress of this community. Swamiji was engaged in sadhana with a dedicated attitude to remove the bad habits in the said area and to discourage drug addiction, to teach Sanskrit to children, especially girls from the Scheduled Tribes, to provide them with good company, to introduce them to Indian culture-based music, and to develop them economically. But some of the people and institutions in the said area who were doing religious education work were strongly opposing Swamiji’s work.
Due to this, Swamiji became a victim of the anger of the religious education people and institutions. He was repeatedly attacked with death. However, the then state government did not provide the kind of security that was supposed to be provided to Swamiji.
Finally, on August 23, 2008, while celebrations were being held at the Jaleshpatta Ashram under the Tumjibandh block of Kandhamal district on the holy day of Janmashtami, unknown gunmen brutally killed Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati along with four other saints and sadhus, namely Mata Bhaktimayee, Baba Amritananda, Kishore Baba and Puranjan Nayak. In the aftermath of the murder, widespread violence broke out in Kandhamal district. The then government, under public pressure from the people of Odisha, first set up a commission headed by Justice Sarat Mahapatra. After the death of Justice Sarat Mahapatra, the work of the said commission was entrusted to Justice A.S. Naidu. On September 16, 2016, the commission submitted its report to the then state government.
The report was submitted to the then Chief Secretary of the Odisha Government by the then Chief Minister. For 8 years, the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik did not take any action. The investigation report did not reveal who was involved in the murder or why it was committed. The BJP had raised questions on this issue on several occasions when it was in the opposition.
The party repeatedly demanded that the report be presented in the assembly. But the then government did not pay any attention to it. After the BJP came to power in Odisha in June 2024, it tried to make the file public. But the most regrettable thing is that even after searching for the said file, it was not found. In this regard, the BJP government had sent letters to the former Chief Minister and the current Leader of the Opposition Naveen Patnaik on several occasions and inquired about the file.
But no satisfactory reply was received from him. An FIR was later filed at the Capital Police Station regarding the theft of the file. After this, the police investigated and sent notices to many people in this regard. The state government has taken this incident very seriously. To expedite the investigation, the state’s largest and most trusted investigative agency, the Crime Branch, has handed over the file theft case. It is expected that the Crime Branch will investigate this matter with utmost seriousness and sincerity. In this regard, the BJP thanks the state government.
On the other hand, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was doing service in Kandhamal district for a long time. The Odisha government has today approved that service. The government has decided to name the newly established Government Medical College and Hospital in Phulbani, Kandhamal, after Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. In this regard, the party will not be able to thank the state government enough. In addition, a girls’ ashram is now running in Jaleshpatta, where Swamiji passed away.
In the said girls’ ashram, most of the girls from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities are staying and studying Sanskrit. For its development and to make the memory of Swamiji brighter, the popular Chief Minister Shri Mohan Charan Majhi has announced an assistance of Rs. 13 crore from the Chief Minister’s Special Assistance Fund. In which, arrangements have been made to build a wall starting from a student residence to accommodate 300 hundred students of the said area.
Apart from this, there are also plans to develop the area by bringing water from the nearby river. Shri Tripathi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party thanks and expresses its gratitude to the Odisha government for extending its support for the overall development of the initiative started by Swamiji for the upliftment of tribal girls.State Vice President Shri Ashok Mishra and State Spokesperson Shri Hitesh Mohapatra were present at this press conference.
