Dr Ramakant Panda to be conferred with Utkal Ratna award

Famous Odia doctor and one of the best heart surgeons in the world, Ramakant Panda, will be conferred with prestigious Utkal Ratna award on July 12.

Utkal Sahitya Samaj (USS) president Bijayananda Singh said the decision to confer the Utkal Ratna award to Panda, the Bhasa Samman award to novelist Prafulla Kumar Tripathy and 24 other persons with various awards in different fields was taken at the executive body meeting of the USS.

Dr. Panda would be conferred with the award, instituted by Utkal Sahitya Samaj, on the occasion of its 113nd convocation at Satabdi Bhavan in Cuttack on July 12. The Utkal Ratna award carries a silver trophy, copper plaque and a shawl.

The prestigious honour has already been conferred on many other eminent personalities of the likes of Radhanath Rath, Sachi Routray, Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, Arnapurna Moharana, Nityananda Mohapatra, Rabi Ray, Manoj Das, Tulasi Munda, Mohapatra Nilamani Sahu, Jayant Mohapatra, among others.

The other luminaries nominated for the awards in various creative categories are Manasi Das (novel), Sushmita Rath (short story), Pradip Kumar Rath (drama), Aswini Kumar Mishra (poetry), Choudhury Satyabrata Nanda (science literature), Debendra Kumar Dash (essay), Ramesh Patri (children’s literature), Banoja Mohanty (art and culture), Bijay Kumar Nanda (translation), Bhagwan Prakash (sambad sahitya), Kulamani Jena (spiritual literature), Banoja Devi (Lekhika Sanman), Matlub Ali (biography), Sampad Mohapatra (journalism), Pitabash Routray (comic literature), Govardhan Dash (autobiography), Brindaban Jena (lyrics), Shantanu Mohapatra (music), Truti Das (song), Anil Dey (travelogue), Baishnab Charan Mohanty (satirical literature), Kailash Chandra Tikayatray (cultural organisation), Akhila Kumar Mishra (young writers award) and Shashiprava Samantaray (publishing).

The Utkal Sahitya Samaj is the oldest literary institution of the state.