Bhubaneswar: Litterateurs have criticised the Central Sahitya Academy for not making public the names of the books that were shortlisted for the Awards.
The Academy had recently assured the litterateurs and literary critics that it would declare the names of the shortlisted books along with the names of the jury members while announcing the Academy Awards.
The Academy at its Agartala executive body meeting announced the names for Bal Sahitya Puraskar and Yuva Puraskar for the 2019. It announced 45 Award winners name for various Indian languages for this year. Along with the names of the winners, the Academy also came out with the names of the jury members. However, it did not made public the books that were shortlisted for the final decision.
Eminent litterateur personal of Asit Mohanty, who has raised the issue citing the rules of the Academy, has said that the struggle would continue till the Academy make the names of the books public in adherence to the rules. “Everybody is interested in keeping the procedure opaque so as to take illegal advantage of the system”, he lamented.
The Central Sahitya Academy secretary, in fact, in a letter had assured that the names of the books shortlisted for the Award would be made public as per the rules. And, it was expected that the Academy would start maintaining transparency in Award selection by declaring the names of the book at its Agartala session.