Bhubaneswar, April 20: A street named after Saint Teresa has run into trouble.

Plans are afoot to name an alternative road in the city after poet Abhimanyu Samanta Singhar. Controversy had erupted after a road dedicated to him was renamed after Saint Teresa last year.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on September 4 last year had announced the stretch from Satya Nagar flyover to Cuttack road to be named Saint Mother Teresa Road coinciding with her canonisation in the Vatican.

Based on the council resolution of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), the works department declared the renaming of the road after a request from the Odisha Catholic Bishops' Council chairman, Archbishop John Barwa SVD of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar on behalf of the Missionaries of Charity in Odisha.

But, the same road was earlier notified in 2003 as Abhimanyu Samanta Singhar Road by the works department, and the department claims that it had inadvertently not intimated the BMC. They have sent a proposal to the corporation for two roads for naming it after Singhar.

The two roads are from Jawaharlal Nehru Marg to Janpath link road No. 12 (Ananda Bazaar to R.D. Women's College), and Jawaharlal Nehru Marg to Janpath link road No. 10 (Regional Institute of Education, Bhub-aneswar, to Rupali Square).

A controversy was sparked off after intellectuals claimed that the road was earlier named after the noted 19th century poet and that it was an insult to the son of the soil. They also alleged that several plaques along the road describing it as Abhimanyu Samanta Singhar Road were uprooted or destroyed.

Former student of Samanta Singhara High School, Balia, and executive member of Abhimanyu Smruti Sansad, Bhubaneswar, Prakash Nayak feels naming an alternative road does not "make for the insult that has already been done to the son of the soil".

"We should rather name another road after Saint Teresa instead of renaming the road that was already named after him. From unofficial sources, it is heard that both the roads suggested by the works department were also named after some important personalities. If that is true, it will create further confusion and probably, by doing this, the government will drag itself into another controversy," he said.

The poet's contribution to the Odia literature is considered immense and he has also produced several immortal works, including Bidagdha Ch-intamani, Prema Chintamani, Parbati, Prematarangini, Sulakshana and several others.

Om Prakash Patel, chief engineer, design planning and investigation and roads wing of the department, said: "These roads have not been given any other specific nomenclature by the government till date. So, the proposal is under consideration."

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said: "We will decide on the issue at the next council meeting."

Members of the Abhimanyu Smruti Sansad alleged that the two proposed roads have already been named Rama Devi Marg and Shakti Marg.