State to promote Buddhist heritages in int’l level: CM

--3-day conference on Buddhist heritages begins in city

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while inaugurating the Third International Conference on Buddhist Heritage of Odisha here on Friday emphasised upon promotion of Buddhist heritages of the State in international level.

He termed the Buddhist heritages at Lalitgiri, Udaygiri and Ratnagiri as invaluable assets in the tourism sector of the State. To increase the tourist footfall to these places, he said, the State Government would take initiatives to promote and publicize Buddhist heritages of the State in national and international level.

Patnaik hoped that the conference would successfully portray the significance of these heritages of the State. He also emphasised upon the roles of tour operator in promoting the sites in the national and international level.

Tourism Minister Ashok Panda stressed on linking of the Buddhist heritages with other heritages of the country.

Among others, Tourism Secretary Arvind Padhee and Indian Association of Tour Operators president Subhash Goel also spoke in the inaugural ceremony.

The three-day conference is being attended by many professors from Japan, University of Delhi, Banaras Hindu University, Lucknow University together with tour operators from Delhi and Banaras along with scholars and tour operators of the State.

A book titled `Excavations at Radhanagar’ was released by the Chief Minister at the inaugural session.

After the inaugural session, intellectuals and professors presented papers on Buddhist sites of India and Odisha, tourism potentials of Buddhist sites in Odisha and other case studies.

The second day would be a field visit to Lalitgiri, Udayagiri and Ratnagiri, while there would be an exclusive session for the tour operators on third day.