Debi Mohanty becomes new Secretary of OSJA

Bhubaneswar : Debi Prasanna Mohanty and Debasis Sundaray were unanimously elected as new Secretary and Treasurer respectively of Odisha Sports Journalists’ Association (OSJA) at its annual general meeting (AGM) held at Saheed Sporting Club premises in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

Mohanty and Sundaray will succeed Sambit Mohapatra and Himanshu Patimishra respectively for a two-year term (2022-2024) starting April 1, 2022. President Sandeep Mishra and Working President K Ravi retained respective posts for another term.

Outgoing Secretary Sambit Mohapatra was felicitated on being elected as a Vice-president of Sports Journalists’ Federation of India (SJFI) recently. Various decisions were taken at the AGM, which was presided over by Sandeep Mishra.

According to the decisions, OSJA will organise its annual awards function on the occasion of its foundation day on March 21, 2022. Proposals to waive off membership fees the years 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to COVID pandemic and accord membership to new sports journalists of the state were approved.

The AGM also featured elaborate discussions on issues pertaining to difficulties faced by sports journalists in gathering information and covering events in the state. On this issue, it was decided that OSJA will seek better support and cooperation from all stakeholders of sports in Odisha.

It was also decided that a delegation of OSJA will meet higher authorities of the Odisha government, seeking restoration of Biju Patnaik Award for sports journalists, government accreditation for them and a government quarter for setting up of the state office of OSJA.

Besides the office-bearers, sports journalists Sanatan Pani, Samikhya Paatnaik, Umakant Mishra, Bimal Kumar, Debi Prasanna Panigrahi, Manoranjan Das, Ranjan Ray, Manmohan Swain, Sujit Das, Pratap Pradhan, Benudhar Das, Chakradhar Majhi, Mahendra Sahoo, Tushar Senapati and Kumarshree Sahoo, among others, were present in the AGM.