Civil Society Members remove Hoardings near Madhu Babu’s Statue

In a major development in Odisha’s capital city, Bhubaneswar, a group of civil society members took on the administration and tore down large posters and hoardings of BJP and BJD that completely covered Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das’ statue at the Governor’s Square.

The civil society members led by senior journalists Subhas Chandra Pattanayak, Pradyumna Satpathy, activist Tusarkant Satapathy and media professional Pabitra Maharatha launched the protest at around 9 AM this morning in the presence of huge crowd, journalists and cops.

They tore down the hoardings and posters and entered the arena to garland Madhu Babu and shouted slogans, hailing Odia pride. They slammed the political groups for indulging in poster/hoarding war to gain cheap mileage and disregard the legend of Odisha in the process.

The intellectuals further questioned the efficiency of BMC and Commissionerate Police in dealing with the matter. Despite several requests and warnings from the civil society, they failed to act. Even on Madhu Babu’s death anniversary on 4th February, he was seen hiding behind the posters, which was no less than a shame for Odisha.

After the civil society group tore down the posters, the cops and BMC were forced to act and removed all hoardings from the no-hoarding zone near Madhu Babu’s statue. It’s a big success and set a right precedent for the future too.