Bhubaneswar: It seems the dark clouds of controversy over the Dharmapada award, the highest honour given by Odisha Lalitkala Academy, will soon disappear.
The ‘Dharmapada Purashkar and Silpi Sambardhana Utsav’ is scheduled to be observed within one month’s time, barring any untoward incident.
“The names of the awardees for 2009 to 2015 have been announced but the awards have not been given away for some artistes, after the announcement of some awardees’ names was dragged the award to court. Meanwhile, some artistes whose names are featured in the list have already passed away. Taking this seriousness into consideration, after conferring with the law department, the ‘Dharmapada Purashkar and Silpi Sambardhana Utsav’ will be observed soon,” informed Principal Secretary, Odia Lanhuage Literature and Culture Department, Manoranjan Panigrahi.
If things sail smooth, seven artistes would be awarded for seven years, from 2009 to 2015.
The would-be recipients for the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 are late pattachitra artiste Gokul Bihari Pattanayak, late stage artiste, theatre director, actor and painter Asim Basu, ex-principal of Government College of Art and Crafts, Khallikote, Durgaprasad Das, sculptor Padma Shri Sudarshan Sahoo, painter Jatin Das, painter and art critic late Dinanath Pathy and sculptor Padma Vibhushan Raghunath Mohapatra respectively.
It will be the first time for Odisha Lalitkala Academy to confer awards on some artistes posthumously. The award carries a purse of Rs 1 lakh, a memento and a citation.
Similarly, painter late Sarat Kumar Rath, late Harisinha Babu, terracotta artiste late Debaraj Sahu, painter late Pramod Mohanty and painter Mahendra Prasad Mohapatra will be felicitated for the year 2014. For the year 2015, the Academy will felicitate painter Chandramani Biswal, painter late Chitra Pattanayak, painter Kailas Meher, painter Ramahari Jena and painter Sailabala Nayak.
This apart, it has been decided that the Academy will soon nominate artistes from the year 2015 to 2020.
The last award ceremony was last held in 2006 where Asit Mukherjee was conferred with the award. Thereafter, the Academy had announced names of the awardees from 2009 to 2015, with no explanation on the missing years from 2006 to 2009.
After the announcement, some nominated artistes had dragged the award to the court, alleging irregularities in the nominations of the awards. In the meantime, the state government had also doubled the award amount.
However, since there is no restriction to give away awards even when the matter is subjudice, the Academy has decided to organise the festival after consulting with the law department.
PNN
