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Elections held at Orissa Sahitya Akademi

BHUBANESWAR: The high-profile Executive Council (EC) and the Finance Committee (FC) of the Orissa Sahitya Akademi (OSA) was constituted here on Saturday following an election by the 46-member General Council. For the first time in the history of the 50-year old Akademi, the elections were held unanimously.

Poet and professor Soubhagya Mishra, Sanskrit scholar Dukhishyam Tripathy and literary editor Bijayananda Singh were elected to the EC while Susant Nayak, Prahlad Satpathy and Abhay Sutar constituted the FC.

The General Council of the Akademi comprises representatives from all the 30 districts of Orissa, eight nominees of the three major Universities of the state besides eight members elected by the district representatives.

Akademi’s president Hussian Rabi Gandhi, Vice-President Chandra Sekhar Das Burma and secretary Hara Prasad Parichha Patnaik were present.

The General Council discussed proposals regarding the ongoing golden jubilee celebrations of the Akademi following the election.

Ironically, policemen were deployed at the Panth Nivas, the venue of the meeting and election (also for the first time in the history of the Akademi) in view of the threat of protest from a section of litterateurs of the state who were demanding ouster of Gandhi from the post of president for his political affiliation with the ruling Biju Janata Dal.

They were also demanding resignation of Vice-President Das Burma for his alleged manipulation in winning a literary award.

However, neither the protestors turned up nor did the general council members resigned from the Akademi as threatened earlier.

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