Lok Sevak Mandal,Odisha Branch

The Samaj, Gopabandhu Bhawan, Buxibazar Cuttack-753001

Ph: 0671-2301240/2301994

Pt. Gopabandhu Das was an eminent social activist and a freedom fighter. He took active part in the freedom movement and was jailed a number of times. He was a member of Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council from 1917-20. Deeply concerned with the backwardness, poverty and illiteracy prevailed in the State of Odisha, he exposed fearlessly their problems before the British. To achieve this objective he started an Oriya weekly, the Samaj at Sakhigopal, near Puri, a small town in Orissa. The paper was later shifted from Sakhigopal to Puri in January 1926 and thereafter to Cuttack on 2 July 1927. It emerged at a mouth piece of oriya people and converted into a daily in 1930.

During his visit to Puri in 1925 Lala Lajpat Rai enrolled Pt.Gopabandhu Das as Life Member of the Society and soon after he gifted the entire Satyabadi Printing Press including the Samaja to the Servants ofthe People Society in June, 1928 through his Will on 17.6.1928 reproduced below:

"The short cut that appears to me at the present moment is that I shall make over the whole press to the Servants of the People Society, so that a permanent institution of the Society may continue in Orissa. I hope the Society will see to its strict management and will spend all its proceeds on social, educational, moral and political uplift of Orissa.”

Since then, as per his Will, this branch has been working for the betterment of the people of Odisha by providing relief and rehabilitation to the victims of natural calamities like cyclones, floods, droughts etc. On 26 March 1928 the General Body of the Society elected Pt. Gopabandhu Das as its first Vice-President at its meeting held in Lahore. He unfortunately, could not survive long and passed away on 17 June 1928, the same year Lala Lajpat Rai died on 17November 1928.

Broadly speaking, the Orissa branch comprises of the following four departments:

The Samaj
Relief Fund
GIMSAR Hospital
Dr. Radhanath Rath Community Centre

The Samaja :

'The Samaja', the synonym of news papers in Odisha - a mass circulated and widely read Odiya daily has completed ‘101’ years of its glorious publication. Founded in 1919 by a great visionary, nationalist and freedom fighter, Utkalamani Pandit Gopabandhu Das, 'The Samaja' stands for high standards of accuracy, authenticity and the core value of journalism.

Over the years, it has slowly transformed itself into an institution. In the annals of the post independence era, the role of ‘The Samaja’ has been instrumental in awakening the social values and contributing in the nation building process. In the year 2007, 'The Samaja' won the prestigious 'ILNA' award as the best Nationalist Newspaper by the

Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. Now, it has a readership of around Sixteen lakh having a daily circulation of nearing three lakh and publishing from eight places having live editions as Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Balasore, Cuttack, Kolkata, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Vizag spreading across three States Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

Gopabandhu Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Madhopur, Distt. Athgarh.

The Gopabandhu Institute of Medical Sciences and Research was started at Madhopur, Distt. Atthgarh in Orissa in 2002 mainly to serve the poor and backward people of that area. The institute is situated in a rural belt, inhabited basically by Scheduled Cast, Scheduled Tribe and poor people at a 40 acre of land. Originally this project was started with a budget of Fifty crore with only 150 beds. This institution has turned the hillock into a

green area with unprecedented medical service to the people from the funds received either from charity or from the SOPS.

Community Centre:

Padam Bhushan Dr. Radhanath Rath, the noted freedom fighter of the country, Editor ofthe Samaj and ex-President of the Servants of the People Society from 1.5.1981 to 3.7.1991 was born on the 6th of December 1896 and passed away, after successful career for over 102 years, on 12.2.1998. He came in contact with Gopabandhu Das, social activist and spend most of his time for the upliftment of the weaker section of the society. Radhananth Rath was a friend of Subhas Chandra Bose though he was junior to him by one year. He held ministerial positions in the Government of Orissa.

To commemorate his memory a Community Centre has been built at Modipara in Sambalpur, which was formally inaugurated on 24 February 2009. It is a large picturesque building on an area of plinth of about 7000 sq. ft. situated in the heart of Sambalpur city.