Manish Kumar
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: In an embarrassment to Orissa government, an RTI reply from Union home ministry has clarified that the state government not recommended the Padma award for Koshli poet Haldar Nag.
Responding to an RTI plea filed by this correspondent, home ministry has given a list of 30 names recommended by the state government which did not mention Haldar Nag. The list comprises recommendations for film director Nilamadhab Panda, Sabyasachi Mohapatra, author Devdutt Pattnaik, former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey among 26 others from various fields, but Nag’s name was conspicuously missing.
The ministry has claimed Haldar’s name was recommended by the central Padma committee and the suggestion did not come from the state government. It also clarified there was only one nomination for Nag which came from the panel itself and there were no multiple nominations for him from any other quarter.
The controversy erupted after it was made clear that Orissa government did not recommend Nag’s name for Padma Sri award. The same has also been validated by the Centre’s RTI response to this paper.
Earlier, the general administration (GA) department which plays a key role in recommending names of eminent persons for the Padma awards remained silent on queries by this paper for skipping Nag.
However, the state culture department earlier claimed that it had forwarded Nag’s name for consideration on suggestion from the GA department. Manoranjan Panigraphi, state culture secretary earlier told Orissa POST, “Our department recommended the name of Haldar Nag to the state government for consideration for Padma Sri award but later what happened we were not aware of. The recommending letter was sent to the GA department by erstwhile culture secretary Arvind Padhee.”
