Bhubaneswar, April 17: Political party members as well as the general public today paid tributes to former chief minister Biju Patnaik on his 18th death anniversary.

Several meetings and blood donation programmes were also organised across the state to mark the occasion.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, son of Biju babu, visited Puri to pay tribute at his father's memorial at Swargadwar. Twice elected as the chief minister of state, Biju Patnaik died on April 17, 1997. Former Prime Ministers, including H.D. Deve Gowda, Chandra Shekhar Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, along with other senior national leaders such as L.K. Advani, had attended his funeral.

Paying tributes to his father, Naveen said: "All should work hard to fulfil the dreams of Biju babu. All efforts have been made for the overall development of the state. The best tribute to him would be to join hands and work towards the progress of the state."

Naveen said development schemes such as the distribution of rice at Re 1 per kg and the Mamata scheme were being taken in the state.

"Today, on Biju babu's shradha divas (death anniversary), we should remember the contributions and good work he did for Odisha," the chief minister said.

Members of the Biju Janata Dal organised a tilatarpan (ritual to offer prayers to the deceased) at Bindusagar here today. A meeting was also held at the party office.

While most of the members remained silent on the issue of conferring the Bharat Ratna to Biju babu, MLA Priyadarshi Mishra raised the issue. "The Centre should consider the state's demand to confer the honour on Biju babu for his contribution towards the overall development of the state and the country. We have been raising this demand since long," Mishra said.

Though Naveen and senior leaders such as Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patasani were present on the occasion, none of them addressed the issue. All of the members reminisced about Biju babu's contributions towards the overall development of the state.