The Samikhsya Bureau
BHUBANESWAR: Eminent writer Ramchandra Behera will be decorated with the coveted Atibadi Jagannath Das Puraskar – State’s highest honour for literature – for the year 2020.
Established since 1957, Odisha Sahitya Akademi, State’s apex body for literature under the Department of Culture of Odisha Government has instituted the award.
The annual award was instituted in 1993 and since then 27 luminous litterateurs have been the recipient of the top honour.
The past awardees have been Radha Mohan Gadanaik, Krushna Chandra Tripathy, Natabar Samantray, Raj Kishor Patnaik, Laxmidhar Nayak, Gouri Kumar Brahma, Nityananda Mohapatra, Binod Chandra Nayak, Basanta Kumari Pattnaik, Achyutanand Pati, Chintamani Behera, Manoranjan Das, Umasankar Panda and Sudarshan Acharya.
The list further includes Manoj Das, Mahapatra Neelamani Sahoo, Dasharathi Das, Chandrashekhar Rath, Gaganendranath Dash, Brajanatha Rath, Dhaneswar Mahapatra, Santanu Kumar Acharya, Madhusudan Pati, Bibhuti Patnaik, Rabi Singh, Ramakanta Rath and Binapani Mohanty.
Behera was the 29th President of the Akademi who served it from 2010 to 2013.
The Akademi will also felicitate 15 senior litterateurs of the State.
They are Debendra Kumar Das, Girija Shankar Sharma, Ashok Kumar Patnaik, Babaji Charan Patnaik, Baidhar Sahu, Jiban Krushna Mohapatra, Digraj Brahma, Rudra Narayan Prusty, Soubhagini Mishra, Swarajyalaxmi Mishra, Krupasindhu Nayak, Nirmalprava Nayak, Raseswari Mishra, Radha Binod Nayak and Maheswar Mulia.
The award and felicitations will be presented in a special ceremony hosted by the Akademi.
