Bhubaneswar: Odisha marked the 80th Independence Day with national celebrations. The main event took place at Mahatma Gandhi Marg, where Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi raised the national flag and spoke to the public. He presented a detailed plan to create a prosperous and advanced Odisha, focusing on education, healthcare, jobs, farming, women’s empowerment, infrastructure, social welfare and broad-based growth.
Majhi stated that the coming ten years would be Odisha’s decade and urged citizens to unite for a prosperous state by 2036 and a developed India by 2047. He paid tribute to freedom fighters, noting Odisha’s role in the Paika Rebellion, tribal revolts and the Prajamandal movement.
He described India’s independence as the start of nation-building and praised the country’s progress into a confident and self-reliant global economy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014, citing advances in finance, welfare, health, defence and technology.
Majhi highlighted the end of Maoist violence, noting that nearly half of Odisha was once affected. With the threat removed in March, development work in those areas has resumed.
On education, he announced free schooling from kindergarten to postgraduate level in government institutions, free textbooks for Classes IX and X, midday meals for those classes, 2,200 new primary schools, recruitment of 71,000 teachers, 18 new colleges and four new universities, plus reservations for disadvantaged groups.
In healthcare, he noted expanded coverage through central and state schemes.
