Bhubaneswar: On the maiden visit to Odisha since being sworn in as the President on July 25, Droupadi Murmu will be accorded a grand welcome with tribal groups planning an impressive and colourful cultural performance.
She belongs to the Santhal community and is the first tribal President of the country. She is currently on a four-day visit to three northeast states – Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim.
Though details of her visit to Odisha are still awaited, Droupadi will land at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar on November 10 and will put up at Raj Bhavan during the duration of her two-day stay, the president’s secretariat informed.
A high-level meeting was held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra on Wednesday evening and Puri and Khurda district administrations and the police were instructed to make all necessary arrangements.
After arriving in Odisha capital, she will visit Jagannath Temple, followed by garlanding of Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das’s statue at Singhadwar. She will return to Bhubaneswar in the afternoon and garland the statues of eminent persons here. She will then attend a civic reception at Raj Bhavan in the evening.
On the second day, she will visit Tapoban High School at Khandagiri, Unit-2 Government Girls High School, and Kuntala Kumari Sabat Tribal Hostel, where she studied. She is also scheduled to inaugurate an Odia textbook for engineering and a portal (e-Kumbh) at Jaydev Bhawan before flying back to New Delhi on November 11, sources said.
