SAMBALPUR: The prestigious Gangadhar National Award for Poetry-2020 was conferred on noted Gujarati poet Kamal Vora during the 55th foundation day celebration of Sambalpur University on Thursday.
Vora attended the event virtually and the registrar of the university Nruparaj Sahu received the award from Vice-Chancellor Sanjiv Mittal on his behalf. The award carries a cash prize of `1 lakh, a shawl and a citation.
Expressing his gratitude for the honour, Vora said, “Many eminent poets have received the prestigious award in the past. It is an honour for me that I am receiving the award which has been instituted in the memory of legendary poet Gangadhar Meher.”
Appreciating the university for celebrating poetry during these difficult times of Covid, he said, “If poetry survives, language will survive. And if language survives, mankind will survive.”
Known for his creativity, Vora is the author of three collections of poetry in Gujarati. His first book ‘Arav’ published in 1991 won the Umashankar Joshi Award. His second book ‘Anek Ek’ won the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi award in 2012 and Central Sahitya Akademi award in 2016.
His book ‘Vruddhashatak’ was awarded the first prize of Maharashtra Rajya Gujarati Sahitya Akademi in 2016. His poems have been translated in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada and English. Vora is also an editor of Etad, a quarterly Gujarati literary magazine. He was a member of the Gujarati advisory board of Sahitya Akademi.
Vora is the 30th poet to receive the Gangadhar National Award. On the occasion, noted Odia writer and poet Ramakrushna Rath was also felicitated by the university for his contribution to the field of literature.
Chairperson of Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) Asit Tripathy attended the event virtually as the chief guest. Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Northern Division) Suresh Chandra Dalai, Director of IIM-S Mahadeo Jaiswal and Sambalpur Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida also attended.