Bhubaneswar: A 42-feet-high minar is coming up in the city in memory of the freedom fighters, who had laid down their lives for the country.
The names of around 200 freedom fighters, who had sacrificed their lives between 1807 and 1942, will be engraved on the structure to be made out of Khondalite stone.
The Freedom Fighters' Youth Wing president Bhartruhari Mahatab, the BJD MP, is taking the lead in the construction of the commemorative monument.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will lay the foundation stone of the structure on Thursday.
Although the wing is a non-political organisation, sources said the BJD was behind the move to set up the memorial in an apparent bid to counter the BJP's efforts to appropriate the legendary icons of the state. Last year, the Narendra Modi government had organised the bicentenary celebrations of the Paika revolt of Odisha, an uprising of the paikas against the British rule. The culture minister had organised the event.
Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan had urged the government to provide a place for construction of a memorial of noted freedom fighter, Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, at Barunei near Khurda to commemorate the Paika rebellion.
For the past one year, there has been an attempt by the BJD and the BJP to appropriate the revolt.
The BJP had also made several gestures to win over the families of leaders, who had laid down their lives during the Paika revolt.
The Cuttack Municipal Corporation has already decided to install a bronze statue of Buxi Jagabandhu at the busy Buxi Bazar intersection in the city.
The freedom fighters youth wing (Odisha) secretary Birupkashy Tripathy said: "Soil from the birthplaces of the freedom fighters have been collected from across the state, and it will be deposited near the minar."
"Even we have collected soil from the places such as Eram in Bhadrak, where freedom fighters had laid down lives to the bullets of the British police."
He said: "The minar will be inaugurated on January 2 on occasion of the All India Freedom Fighter's conference."
