BHUBANESWAR: Eminent litterateurs of the state on Saturday wrote to the Central Sahitya Akademi to reconsider conferring the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar to young Odia authors this year.No young Odia author has been selected for this year’s Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar announced by the Central Sahitya Akademi on Friday. While 20 authors in as many languages were selected for the prestigious award, the akademi stated there is no award in Odia language while those in Maithili, Manipuri and Sanskrit will be announced at a later stage.
This is for the first time that Yuva Puraskar has not been conferred on any Odia writer. For the award, the akademi constitutes a three-member jury committee for each language which shortlists books and sends it to its executive committee for final selection. As per norms, names of the jury members are not revealed till the awards are announced.
This year, the general council meeting for the awards in Odia language was supposed to be held on June 10. But names of two jury members - Hrushikesh Mallick and Harishchandra Behera - and names of some books that were shortlisted for the award were leaked on social media a day before the meeting. As a result, the meeting was cancelled and the akademi withheld the award in Odia language. Of the nearly 35 book submissions for the award, 10 had been shortlisted.
Author and convenor of Odia Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi, Gourahari Das has written to the president of Sahitya Akademi Madhav Kaushik demanding an independent inquiry into how the names were leaked and reconstitution of a new jury for the award. “This is for the first time that such an incident has put the entire Odia literary circle to shame. The young writers who submitted their books suffered for no fault of theirs,” said Das, who also demanded the Yuva Puraskar in Odia language be conferred in December this year.
Several other authors from the state including Sahitya Akademi awardees have also written to the akademi president over similar demand. Author Saqti Mohanty said the young writers who were shortlisted for the award should not be punished for the fault of someone else.