In 1965, Bhubaneswar the capital city of Orissa with a population of about fifty
thousand was almost an adolescent of only 17 years old. Within its periphery there were a
few Govt. offices and Commercial concerns. Some institutions like, Orissa University of
Agriculture and Technology, Regional College of Education, German Volunteers Corps and
CARE etc. also grew up with foreign aid giving the town an international touch. That was an
era when Bhubaneswar faced a transition from a town to a city.
Towards 1964-65, Dr. S. Lewis Land, a veteran Rotarian from U.S.A. came to
Bhubaneswar to help and to organize Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology
(OUAT). It was he who took the initiative of forming a Rotary Club in the Bhubaneswar town.
As per the procedure he had to approach the Rotary Club of Cuttack for sponsoring a Club at
Bhubaneswar.
Ultimately, Rtn. Khatau Sundar Das of Rotary Club of Cuttack was appointed as the
Governor's Special Representative (GSR) for Extension. The first organizational meeting of
the Club was held at State Guest House on 28.2.65 (Sunday) at 11 AM under the
Chairmanship of Rtn. C.R. Bose, the then District Governor of R.I. District 325. Exactly after a
week on the next Sunday i.e. on 7.3.65 the second meeting, which was the first meeting of
the provisional Rotary Club, was held at the same venue, the State Guest House, at 12 noon
under the Presidentship of Shri Nilamani Senapati to elect the first Board of Directors. In that
meeting Sri Nilamani Senapati, I.C.S. (Retd.) was elected as the Charter President and Sri
Nalinikanta Panda, I.A.S. as the Charter Secretary. A luncheon was hosted by the Rotary
Club of Cuttack at 1 P.M. on that occasion. The next meeting of the Club was held on
Thursday, the 11 th March, 1965 at 6.30 P.M. which was followed by a dinner hosted by Rtn.
D.P. Gupta of MIs. Gupta Cables Limited. All the required paraphernalia were completed and
the survey report was sent to the Rotary International incorporating a list of 30 Charter
members. Within a short span of one and a half month the club was admitted as a member to
the Rotary International on 11.5.1965.
On 19 th June, 1965 the charter presentation ceremony was held in the premises of Raj
Bhawan with Dr. A.N. Khosla, the then Governor of Orissa, as the Chief Guest. Rtn. C.R.
Bose, District Governor of R.I. Dist. 325 presented the charter to Rtn. Nilamani Senapati as
Charter President. Along with thirty Charter members, four more members were also
inducted by the District Governor as Rotarians on that day. The bright sunny day of June
suddenly changed its colour towards the afternoon and there was heavy down-pour with
storm, thunder and power failure. But nature could not prevent the function from attaining its
colourful success. Blessings were showered on the Club from all corners; the best of such
was perhaps Dr. Khosla's who wished that the Rotary Club of Bhubaneswar should rotate
non-stop for the service to community but not as a Roti Club indulging itself in food and
drinks. The blessings of Dr. Khosla on that evening had really very deep meaning and for
keeping it up the Club has always tried with utmost sincerity not to deviate from the motto of
Service Above Self.
List of Charter Members: 1. Rtn. Awadha Narayan Tiwari 2. Rtn. Amarjeet Singh
3. Rtn. A. Srinivasan 4. Rtn. A.R. Rao 5. Rtn. B. Venkatraman 6. Rtn. Basudev Agarwala 7.
Rtn. Charanjit Singh 8. Rtn. Durga Prasad Gupta 9. Rtn. Dr. Gorachand Rath 10. Rtn. G. S.
Choudhury 11. Rtn. Ghanashyma Mohapatra 12. Rtn. H. M. Float 13. Rtn. Jagmohan
Pattnaik 14. Rtn. K. Janakiraman 15. Rtn. K. S. Ramachandran 16. Rtn. K. S.
Chandrasekharan 17. Rtn. Mahesh Chandra Pradhan 18. Rtn. Rtn. Marwin Parkar 19. Rtn.
Nilamani Senapati, ICS (Retd.) 20. Rtn. Nalinikanta Panda 21. Rtn. N. Gian Chand 22. Rtn.
P. N. Jutshi 23. Rtn. Paul Tunk 24. Rtn. Raghunath Prasad Padhi 25. Rtn. Rabindra Nath Das
26. Rtn. Ramakanta Parikh 27. Rtn. Ramanath Pani 28. Rtn. S. Lewis Land 29. Rtn. Shyamal
K. Ghosh 30. Rtn. Santok Singh 31. Rtn. S. Talwar 32. Rtn. Shyama Sundar Agarwalla 33.
Rtn. T. J. Mansukhani and 34. Rtn. Udaya Chand Agarwal.
District Governors from our club:
It will not be out of place to mention here that an ex-member and Vice-President of our
Club Dr. Sadashiv Mishra who consequent on his transfer joined the Rotary Club of Cuttack
could become Governor of R.I.Dist. 326 during the year 1976-77 and four other members viz.
Prof (Dr.) Sreenivasa Sahu, I.A.S. (1988-89), Rtn D.N. Padhi, I.A.S. (1996-97), Rtn. N.K.
Mishra, I.A.S. (1998-99) and Rtn. Aswini Kumar Kar (2002-03) could also decorated the
exalted office of the Dist. Governor. By dint of their active fellowship and selfless service to
the Community, they have proved that He Profits Most Who Serves Best. It is also worthwhile
to mention that Rtn. Jayshree Mohanty, who was a member of this club since 2009-10 left
this club and formed the Bhubaneswar Rotary e-club and got elected as DGE (DG for 2023-
24 of RID 3262).
Venue
The weekly meetings of the Club were being held in the State Guest House, but to run
the club at a centrally located place, the venue had to be changed from July 65 to the
premises of Bhubaneswar Club Limited. There the weekly meetings were conducted up to
December, 1967 and from January 68 the club functioned in the State Red Cross Building for
two years. Again, the Board of Directors of the Club decided to re-shift the Venue to the
building of Bhubaneswar Club. Accordingly, since 1970, the Rotary Club of Bhubaneswar
functioned till March 1992 in the Bhubaneswar Club premises. Since April 1992 club's regular
meetings are being held in our own building Rotary Bhawan on Sachivalay Marg on every
Monday at 7 P.M.
Coming to the weekly meeting originally the meetings were held on Thursdays. In order to
suit the convenience of the members, it was changed to Monday, then to Wednesday and
lastly back to Monday again with effect from June, 1984. There has been no further change in
the day of meeting till now.
Membership Growth
The club started with 30 charter members and on the date of presentation of charter,
34 members were decorated with lapel pins with four new inductions. In course of time many
new names have come in and disappeared too from the Roster either due to transfer, change
of place, ill-health, extraneous engagements or death. In the initial years there was practically
no growth. Although some new members were coming in, the departure of a few old ones
could not be stopped. By the end of June 1970, the net growth was nil, membership
remaining stagnant at 30. This went up to 52 by the end of the next decade, i.e., June 1980.
The year 1988-89 ended on 30.6.89 with 81 members on the rolls. By the mid 1990-91, the
membership went up to the record growth of 97 and again came down to 71 by 30.6.1992.
Club Bulletin (Konark)
There was no regular bulletin published up to 1967-68. It was being occasionally
brought out in the shape of Souvenirs on the occasion of special functions such as
Installation ceremony, District Governor's visit etc. The first issue of the bulletin was
published on 17.7.1966 under the editorship of Wing Comr. Shehgal from 1968-69. It came
out in almost printed form with the title of "KONARKA" once in a month and that was also not
regular. From the year 1976-77, the publication of the bulletin became regular in cyclostyled
form with demy one-fourth size. Presently it comes out with a beautiful get-up containing
ample information on RI., District and Club activities. Konarka in the meantime has won
district award as best printed bulletin of the district in several years.
Extension Programme
ROTARY CLUBS: Rotary Club of Bhubaneswar since its inception had sponsored 16
new Rotary Clubs in and around Bhubaneswar out of which many clubs are functioning now
and very few are seized to function. The names of the Clubs are as follows:
1. RC Jatani (RI Code-16033 / 04.03.1977; GSR – Retn. Ramanath Pani)
2. RC Khurda (RI Code- 19041 / 16.09.1981; GSR – Rtn. SKB Narayan Japani)
3. RC BBSR North (RI Code- 27452 / 04.11.1990; GSR – PP Rtn. P. Rajeswar Rao)
4. RC Temple City Bhubaneswar (RI Code- 28361 / 17.06.1981; GSR – PP Rtn. Stephen
Behera)
5. RC BBSR Midtown (RI Code- 50168 / 19.02.1997; GSR – PP Rtn. M. V. Rao)
6. RC BBSR Cosmopolitan (RI Code- 51471 / 02.09.1998; GSR - …………)
7. RC BBSR Toshali (RI Code- 51723 / 17.02.1999; GSR – PP Rtn. S. C. Ray)
8. RC BBSR Ekamra (RI Code - ……./ …………; GSR – PP Rtn. Prof G. K. Das)
9. RC BBSR Infocity (RI Code – 62772 / ……….; GSR - …………..)
10. RC BBSR Centennial (RI Code- 67255/15.12.2004, GSR – PP Rtn. Dr. S. K. Ray)
11. RC BBSR New Horizon (RI Code- 76786 / 29.06.2007; GSR – PP Rtn. S. Jagdeb)
12. RC BBSR Capital (RI Code- 79657 / 25.06.2008; GSR - …………)
13. RC BBSR Friends (RI Code- 84183 – 25.11.2011, GSR – PDG A. K. Kar)
14. RC BBSR Eco (RI Code- ……… -16.04.2021; Advisor – PDG Sibabrata Dash)
15. RC BBSR Angela (RI Code – …………………); Advisor –
Rotaract Clubs:
The first community based Rotaract club was organized during the year 1970 at the
children's park premises. Thereafter the Rotaract Clubs were formed in institutions like Utkal
University (Vani Vihar) in 1976-77 followed by the clubs at BJB College and Stewart School,
OUAT, Odisha Engineering College, PUMAS Rotaract club, Aryan College of Engineering
and Technology, Sai International School etc. out of which many are functioning well. The
community based club at the Station Square, Bhubaneswar which had a good start but now
not functioning. The Rotaract Club Bhubaneswar was revived and functioning at Rotary
Bhawan. Recently a new Rotaract Club at Bharatiya Bidya Bhawan has started operating
from this year.
Interact Clubs:
The Interact Club of St. Joseph Convent School was the first Interact club to hold a
certificate. Thereafter the clubs at DAV Public School, Unit-8 and Stewart School came in.
During the course of time Interact Clubs were sponsored at Sai International School, BJEM,
PUMAS Interact Club, Blossoms School and at many other places. Those clubs however
presently require some push up.
Rotary Community Corps (RCC):
For continuous community service programme our club had created as many as 15
RCCs in and around Bhubaneswar such as Daspur, Bhola, Godibari, Kateni, Pallaspalli,
Fakirmohan Nagar, Khanduala, Dhauli, Lingaraj Lepra colony, Kujimahal, Kantabada,
Kalapita and few more others. In many RCCs our club has constructed community centre
building, rural library. In RCC Daspur our club had constructed 20 residential low-cost
buildings in one matching grant project for the super cyclone affected poor residents. In this
village one 20,000 litre capacity overhead tank was constructed for the supply of drinking
water to the village. Two number of Rural libraries was formed at RCC Bhola and RCC
Daspur. At RCC Kalapita road, water supply to each house and all sort of facilities including
toilets with modern classroom facility were provided to their school to make it a happy school.
Long Term Projects of our Club:
1. 3-H grant project # 99-11: This project was sanctioned in the year May 1999 with
International partner Rotary Club of Brighton, RI Dist. 3710, USA and closed on 19th August,
2005 and the project cost was Rs.14273702/-. The project work includes major up-gradation
of Blood Bank at Capital Hospital and Bhubasneswar Municipal Corporation Hospital with
Apherisis unit for fractionation of blood compoents (for first time in Odisha), air-conditioned
mobile van with bed and audio-visual equipment with generator for awareness programme on
health, hygiene, sanitation and literacy in 20 identified centres.
2. Matching Grant Project # 16019: This project was sanctioned in the year May 2001
with International partner Rotary Club of Brighton, RI Dist. 3710, USA and closed on 15th
December, 2008 and the project cost was Rs.3550000/-. The project work includes: 9
community centre building, 12 toilet blocks, Five number of 2000litre overhead water tank,
repair of well and tube wells in different RCCs, Mega Eye check-up, Health check-up,
Educational counseling programme and awareness. Rotary computer education centre at
Saraswati Sishu Bidya Mandir, Bhimtangi and Fakirmohan Nagar, Baramunda.
3. Matching Grant Project # 15768: This project was sanctioned in the year December
2001 with International partner Rotary Club of St. Mauritz, Muenster, RI Dist. 1870, Germany
and closed on March, 2005 and the project cost was Rs.1128000/-. The project work
includes: 20 Low-cost shelters with save water and sanitation for super cyclone victims in
Daspur village. 35000 litre overhead water tank fitted with electrically operated tube well
submersible pump with four outlets in different places of the village for drinking water facility.
4. Matching Grant Project # 21165 (Rotary TASWELS Diagnostic Centre): This
project was sanctioned in the year 26th August, 2002 with International partner Rotary Club
of Brighton, RI Dist. 3710, USA and the project cost was Rs.1192000/-. The project work
includes: To set up an integrated diagnostic center of excellence to provide fairly wide range
of Diagnostic Practices in accepted International norms at affordable cost with specialized
diagnostic and periodic check-up facility for haemoglobinopathies patients. This diagnostic
center which is located at Bapuji Nagar, Bhubaneswar is managed by TRASWELS, Odisha
(a registered society) with a senior consultant pathologist for the benefit of Thalassemia and
Sickle cell anemia patients.
5. World Community Service Project No. 2030 – ASHA: This project was started in the
year 1991 with the assistance from the individual donation of members of Rotary Club of St.
Mauritz, Muenster, RI Dist. 1870, Germany and members of one voluntary organization World
of Open Hearts, Germany. This project ASHA had its own building at Baramunda Housing
Board Colony where 20 children of Leprosy-cured parents were staying from the beginning of
their education till they pass matriculation. This landmark project of RC BBSR was closed in
the year 2018. After completing 27 years of service.
6. ROPARS (Rotary Patient Attendant’s Rest Shelter): This was the centennial project
of the RC BBSR started functioning in the year 2006. A building was constructed in the
Capital Hospital campus by taking the financial assistance from different benevolent donors,
corporate sectors and MP LAD Fund, where attendants of in-house patients of Capital
Hospital were allowed to stay at a very nominal cost. This project was dedicated to the
people of Odisha by His Excellency Shri Rameswar Thakur, Governor of Odisha on 15th
December, 2006.
R.I. President's visit to our club:
It will be worth mentioning here that our club had the singular distinction of welcoming
R.I. President MAT Caparas and Anne Nita, the First lady of Rotary in January, 1987. This
was the first ever visit of an R.I. President to District 3260. On this occasion the then R.I.
Director Rtn. R. K. Saboo (who also later became RI President) and Anne Usha Saboo had
visited our club. During 2009-10, on behalf of the RI District 3260 our club was privileged to
organize the felicitation of RI President Elect Rtn. Kalyan Banerjee and Anne Binota
Banerjee. During their visit to our club they had planted a sapling in Rotary Bhawan campus.
The immediate past RI President Rtn. Shekhar Mehta and Anne Rashi visited our club in
several occasion.