Bhubaneswar: Strains of the immortal Odia anthem ‘Bande Utkal Janani’ reverberated through campus of the SOA Deemed to be University here on Saturday as its faculty members, students and senior officials joined the rest of Odisha to pay tribute to the frontline warriors engaged in the battle against the coronavirus.
Several hundred members of the university, besides students, lined up on the campus in a spectacular formation at 5.30 pm to sing the patriotic number.
The call to sing the song was given by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a message to the people of the state on Thursday to encourage the COVID-19 warriors and honour their sacrifices.
He urged the people of Odisha, no matter wherever they were, to sing the song at the given time while adhering to social distancing.
SOA’s Vice-Chancellor and eminent neuro-surgeon Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, Deans of different faculties, Professors, faculty members, doctors, nurses, para-medics and other employees besides students were present on the occasion.
SOA Deemed to be University has been playing a pivotal role in the battle against coronavirus having set up three Odisha COVID-19 Hospitals in the state. The hospital set up in the university campus here has 525 beds, including 25 ICU beds while the two hospitals being run at Talcher and Kendrapada have 156 and 110 beds respectively. All the three hospitals are being run in collaboration with the state government.
