Servants of the People Society (SoPS) has so much become a scourge that even the staff of the Samaja did not join it in offering oblations to Utkalmani Pt. Gopabandhu Das on his death anniversary on June 8. The staff strength of the paper is around 400.
Offering Tila Tarpana (oblations offered to the manes with handful of water sprinkled with seeds of sesamum indicum) to Gopabandhu was being passionately performed in the past by the staff of the Samaja along with leading citizens of the Cuttack City on Gadagadia Ghat of Mahanadi every year on his death anniversary. But, killing of Gopabandhu’s spirit and looting of the Samaja funds by the SoPS by using a forged WILL of Gopabandhu having come to public attention, participation in Tila Tarpana under the auspices of SoPS has come to be considered an insult to the great soul.
It was, therefore, marked that the event was shunned by the Samaja staff as well as by the general public. When the SoPS life member under whose direction the event was scheduled, and a life worker whom they project as Secretary of the society’s Cuttack branch, were returning red-faced from Gadagagia on their failure to attract even a dozen of participants to Tila Tarpana, the following picture was taken. And it speaks volumes of how SoPS is being looked upon in Orissa.
