Cuttack: Utkal Sahitya Samaj, the oldest literary organisation of the state, has decided to confer Justice Dipak Mishra Sahitya Samman to an eminent Odia writer from next year.
The Samaj established in 1903 will award a literary person with the Justice Dipak Mishra Sahitya Samman for his or her overall contributions to Odia literature every year.
Speaking to media persons Wednesday, former Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Mishra said his family has decided to set up a corpus fund for encouraging literary persons of the state and every year, it will give a cash award of Rs one lakh to an eminent writer of the state.
The corpus fund will also meet the annual expenditure of the Utkal Sahitya Samaj award function.
For this purpose, Justice Mishra handed over a cheque of Rs 4.2 lakh to the president of the Utkal Sahitya Samaj in the presence of other office bearers of the Samaj. The present amount is given to meet the requirements of the Utkal Sahitya Samaj for next three years, he said.
Mishra said his family is also contemplating to establish either a trust or fund to encourage more and more literary persons by associating with other literary institutions.
Mishra has written four books in Odia based on Mahabharat, the latest being ‘Mu Ashwatthama Kahuchi’.
