Bakshi Expressway tag for Puri-Satpada National Highway.

Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan recently paid tributes to legendary freedom fighter Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra at Gadarodanga in Puri district.

The Union Minister took out a motorcycle rally from Mangalaghat to Gadarodanga, the birth place of Bakshi Jagabandhu in Bramhagiri tehsil. He paid floral tributes to the statue of the great freedom fighter who led the Paika Rebellion in 1817 against the British rulers.

“Elated to garland statute of Bakshi Jagabandhu at his native place Gadarodanga in Odisha’s Puri Dist,” Pradhan tweeted.

Addressing a public meeting there, Pradhan said he will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Odisha next year on the occasion of completion of 200 years of the Paika rebellion.

Assuring that Puri-Satpada National Highway will be expanded to four lane, Pradhan said the road will be named as ‘Bakshi Expressway’.

The Union Minister also met the descendants of the freedom fighter at his village. Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, younger brother of Congress leader Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra greeted Pradhan.

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS