Bhima Prusty to receive 44th Sarala Puraskar for his novel ‘Jambuloka’
By Subrat Sarangi
Bhubaneswar, Sept. 28 : The prestigious ‘Sarala Puraskar’, given annually by the IMFA Charitable Trust (IMPaCT) for the best literary achievement, will be presented this year to the famous fictionist Bhima Prusty. He will win this award for his novel ‘Jambuloka’ published by Paschima Publications in 2017.On October 26 the writer will be presented with a plaque and a sum of Five Lakh rupees.
Along with Bhima Prusty’s ‘Jambuloka’, the other books that made it to the final round of judging were Bijay Kumar Satpathy’s ‘NastanidaraUpakatha’, Aparna Mohanty’s ‘Agni Kamalini’, Amaresh Patnaik’s ‘Chahan Ba Nachahan’, Sarojini Sahoo’s ‘Dadan’, Ramesh Prasad Panigrahi’s ‘Kanina’ and Pradeep Kumar Panda’s ‘Jaha Mun ChahunNathibi’. Sitesh Tripathi, Dr. Sucheta Mishra, Dr.Parameswar Mund, Baijayanti Mishra and Dr.Prithidhara Samal were the preliminary judge for selection of books, while the judges for the final round were Prof. Biswaranjan, Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee, Dr. Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Dr. Yashodhara Mishra, Ranjan Kumar Das, ChirasreeIndrasingh and Aditeswar Mishra.
Besides this , the ‘Ila-Bansidhar Panda Kala Samman’, given every year by IMPaCT for lifetime excellence in the field of art, has also been announced for the year 2023. Guru Benudhar Mohapatra, a unique sculptor of pattachitra and famous flute player Guru Mohini Mohan Patnaik will be given the award this year. As part of the award, both of them will be given a certificate and a plaque with an amount of two lakh rupees each. Aruna Mohanty, Ratikant Mohapatra, Mitali Chinara were the judges in the music section and Panchami Manu Ukil, BiyotProjna Tripathy and Ramakanta Samantaray were the judges in the art section.
The Sarala Puraskar, instituted by eminent Odia industrialist Dr Bansidhar Panda and his wife Ila Panda in 1980, has been continuously awarded by the Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT), The award giving ceremony will be held in Bhubaneswar on 26th October 2023.
