Bhubaneswar, June 29: The state government has proposed to erect statues of eminent personalities following The Telegraph’s survey that had revealed how little the Odia youth knows about important personalities of the state.

On Utkal Divas (April 1) this year, The Telegraph had published a report following a survey on the knowledge of college students about the state’s history and eminent personalities. Outrageous answers displayed their ignorance about prominent historical heroes, freedom fighters, political leaders, writers, literary persons and visual and performing artistes of the state.

Reacting to this, the tourism and culture department, in its annual list of statues to be installed around the state, has included some major names that were ignored so far. However, not all may make it to the display podiums on the streets.

The tentative statue list prepared by the culture department for 2013-14 was passed at a meeting presided by tourism and culture minister Maheswar Mohanty on June 18. The statues include Biju Patnaik’s 18-feet sculpture for Airport Square near the new domestic terminal and lifesize memorials of former chief minister Nandini Satapathy, freedom fighter Jayee Rajguru, King Kapilendra Dev (15th century king of Puri), Samrat Kharavela (first century emperor), freedom fighter Birsa Munda and Krushna Chandra Panigrahi.

Statues of Vyasa Kabi Fakir Mohan Senapati (on the Odisha-Bengal border), Kuntalakumari Sabat, Radhanath Ray, Mayadhar Mansingh, Balaram Das, Acharya Harihar Das, Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das were added to the list under the category of writers and literary persons. Under the visual and performing artistes category, the choices were Nimai Harichandan, Bhima Bhoi, Sanjukta Panigrahi, Jagannath Mohapatra, Maguni Das and Bimbadhar Verma.

The statues of Samrat Kharavela and king Kapilendra Dev might create a controversy because the images of the two personalities are not available and gathering expert opinion on the statues has become an uphill task. Earlier this month, The Telegraph had reported the plight of sculptor Saroj Kumar Bhanja, who suffered losses after carving a bronze sculpture of king Kharavela that was ordered under the annual statue list by the tourism and culture department.

After being allotted the project in 2008, Bhanja’s sculpture of Kharavela was neither collected nor was he paid. Last year in July, his order of the statue of the king sitting on a horse was cancelled on the grounds that “it was not based on history”.

Director of culture Sushil Kumar Das said: “This year, there is an allocation of Rs 1.5 crore for commissioning of the statues.”

Usually, 15 names are considered for the commissioning, but the list for this year so far contains 21 names, of which some names might be dropped. Eight statues were proposed during 2011-12, but seven have been completed so far. They include Adi kabi Sarala Das, Nilakantha Das, Pankaj Charan Das, Debaprasad, Das Kanta Kabi Laxmikanta Mohapatra, Krushna Chandra Panigrahi and Binod Kanungo.

The statue of Karmabira Gourisankar is yet to be completed and the culture department is likely to cancel it. From the 2012-13 list, only three statues have so far been installed in Bhubaneswar. These are of Bipra Charan Mohanty, Atibadi Jagannath Das and Prananath Patnaik. Two others — those of Rendo Majhi and Dasarathi Patnaik — were completed, but not installed.

These are to be installed at Ulradani in Kalahandi district and Nayagarh. Three statues of Swabhaba Kabi Gangadhar Meher, Akshaya Mohanty and Kalicharan Pattanayak from last year’s list are still under production and the minister directed the department officials to install them within a month’s time at suitable locations of the city.

A special committee consisting of historians, archaeologists, the secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi, the principal of B.K. College of Art and Craft and officials or office-bearers of institutions named after the famous personalities are scrutinising the statues. Family members are also invited to approve the personalities’ statues before those are installed.

Interestingly, the culture department said three statues were yet to be installed because of the lack of suitable places in the city. These are of Palli Kabi Nanda Kishore Bal, Dharanidhar Bhuyan and Biju Patnaik’s wife Gyan Patnaik. Made for Rs 5 lakh, the installation of Gyan Patnaik’s statue has been delayed since her contribution to the state was questioned by many. The installation of her statue was stopped immediately after a story about the same appeared in The Telegraph on April 28. The statue was to be placed outside Government Hospital in Unit-IV.