Bhubaneswar: The Central Sahitya Academy has said ‘sorry’ for not making public the names of the shortlisted books for the various awards of the Academy. Buckling under pressure from two-Odisha based established literary persons, the Academy has agreed to make public the names of the short listed books for the awards adhering to the existing rules of the Academy.
“We are sorry that we could not release the shortlisted book list along with the Award announcement at the time of announcement of Sahitya Academy’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar and Yuva Puraskar. We are uploading the same in our website and henceforth we will continue this practice as per the existing rules of various Academy awards,” assured the Academy secretary Dr. K. Sreenivasrao in a letter on July 24, 2019, written to Narendra Narayana Dash, an eminent literary translator of Odisha,
The Academy confers four awards- Sahitya Academy Puraskar, Sahitya Academy Anubada Puraskar, Sahitya Academy Yuva Sahitya Puraskar and Shitya Academy Bal Sahitya Puraskar– in 24 recognised Indian languages.
Literary columnist Asit Mohanty and literary translator Narendra Narayan Dash had brought to the notice of the Central Sahitya Academy secretary Dr.K.Sreenivasrao that the Academy is not making public the name of the jury members and the names of shortlisted books violating the rules of the Award. The duo has pointed out that even though the Academy is disclosing the names of jury members of late, it is not giving the names of the shortlisted books.
Even though the Sahitya Academy secretary had promised the two activists that the names of the jury members and the shortlisted books would be announced, it refrained from doing so when it announced the Bal Sahitya and Yuva Sahitya Awards at its Agartala executive board meeting held on June 14, 2019. Not only that, it blissfully forget to do so when it announced the remaining awards for the Maithili language on July 12, 2019.
Pointing out the lapses on the party of the Central Sahitya Academy, Narendra Narayana Dash shot off a letter to the secretary on July 20,2019 threatening to take the matter to the court.
It was following this letter, the The Central Sahitya Academy has uploaded in its official website the names of the jury members and shortlisted books for the recently announced Bal Sahitya Puraskar and Yuva Sahitya Puraskar conferred in the 24 languages.
For Bal Puraskar in Odia language, there were four books and four names of literary persons for their overall contribution to children literature. The books are- Maula Phulara Mahaka (poetry) by Manindra Mohanty, De Hata Badhei De(short story) by Manindra Mohanty, Ame Pilae Bhauni Bhai (poetry) by Sinamani Rout, and Saragara Phula Ame Kia Ama Tulare (poetry) by Nirbhaya Pani. Similarly, the four persons shortlisted for over all contribution to children literature are Birendra Kumar Routray, Jugal Kihsore Sarangi, Fakir Charan Padhi and Ramesh Patri. Out of this four books and four literary persons, the jury had selected Birendra Kumar Routray for the Bal Sahitya Award for 2019 for his overall contribution to the children literature.
Similarly, nine books had been shortlisted for the Yuva Sahitya Puraskar. The books are –short story Anabruta by Aparna Tripathy, poetry Apada Premika by Dipun Puhana, literary critic Bimugdha Uchharana by Sisir Behera, poetry Ichhabati by Sujit Kumar Satapathy, essay Kalpana, Anubada O’ Sahitya by Chandra Sekher Hota, poetry Naiki Jiba Asa by Asish Kumar Mishra, poetry Naritia Kalama Dhariba Dina by Sujata Sahani, short story Niyama Bedi by Priya Ranjan Pattnaik and literary critic Samikhya Darsana by Santosh Kumar Nayak. Sisir Behera got the Yuva Sahitya Puraskar for 2019.
