India News | Odisha ITI Students Build Biju Patnaik Sculptures Using Scraps

Berhampur (Odisha), Mar 6 (PTI) The students of two Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in Odisha's Ganjam district have built large sculptures of Biju Patnaik, former chief minister of the state, by using automobile scraps and other waste materials.

The sculptures were installed on their respective campuses of the institutes on Sunday to mark the 107th birth anniversary of the Late Patnaik.

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While the students of ITI Berhampur have built a 10-foot tall sculpture which is weighing 200 kilograms, those of ITI Chhatrapur have made an eight-foot statue with a weight of 180 kilograms.

"We have also made a park named Bhumiputra Vaibhav Vatika inside the campus to install the statue along with the replica of a Dakota plane used by Biju Patnaik,” ITI Chhatrapur Principal Priyabrat Panda said.

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In 1947, the former chief minister used a Dakota aircraft to rescue the then prime minister of Indonesia Sutan Sjahrir. Indonesia had twice decorated Biju Patnaik with its highest civilian honour ‘Bhumiputra' for his role in rescuing Sjahrir.

“In order to honour Biju Babu on his birth anniversary, we have also named the scrap park Bhumiputra Vaibhav Vatika,” said Panda.

The ten-foot tall sculpture of Patnaik was built using automobile scraps like bike chains, gear wire, fan bearings, iron rods and others, said Rajat Panigrahy, Principal of ITI Berhampur, who has made the design of the sculpture.

He said the jacket was built with nuts and the dhoti and kurta with fan-barring.

"All these waste materials were either collected by our students or donated to us for their reuse,” said Panigrahy.

He said the sculpture would be kept inside the glass box for its protection. The ITI Berhampur students had earlier made large sculptures of Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subash Chandra Bose by using scrap and discarded materials. Its campus is dotted with such sculptures.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)