Bhubaneswar, Nov 24: People across Odisha remembered their dear revolutionary and at the same time former chief minister Nabakrushna Choudhury on his 120th birth anniversary on Tuesday.

While all the who’s-who garlanded the statue of Choudhury located in the premises of Odisha Legislative Assembly in the morning, people from various walks of life gathered at Baji Rout Chhatrabas at Anugul, founded by the great revolutionary-cum-Gandhian politician to pay homage to him on his birth anniversary.

Born in a zamindar family, he in contrast led a simple living all through his life. Choudhury who served Odisha as the chief minister of Odisha from 1950 to 1956 had several welfare projects to his credit including the legislation aiming to make Odia as the official language of Odisha.

Several organisations across the state organized prayer meetings, processions and public meetings to commemorate the occasion. He was an idealist chief minister, who was really a friend of poor and downtrodden, recalled eminent speakers organised the State Information and Public Relations department at the Jayadev Bhawan located adjacent to the state secretariat and state assembly on Tuseday evening.

Former agriculture minister and a prominent activist of Jaya Prakash Revolution, Amar Prasad Satpathy, editor of Utkal Prasanga and Odisha Review- the state government’s mouth piece in Odia and English- Dr Lenin Mohanty, eminent literatteur and columnist, Dr Jayanti Rath described Choudhury as the monumental symbol of patriotism, dedication, service, simple life and sacrifice.

Earlier in 2016, the state government had announced ‘Nabakrushna Choudhury Secha Unnayan Yojana’, at the cost of Rs 635 crore.