Delhi-Based Odia Forum To Honour Soumya Patnaik With First ‘Stambha Samman’

Bhubaneswar: Founder and Editor-in-chief of Odia daily Sambad, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik will be honoured with the first ‘Stambha Samman’ by Delhi-based Odia intellectuals’ forum, The Intellects.

The Intellects released a list of 12 noted personalities for the Prabasi Bhasha Samman for 2021 on Monday.

The personalities were chosen for their contribution to various aspects of Odia language and culture.

This year, a new category of honour, the Stambha Samman, has been instituted for significant contribution to columns in Odia newspapers and magazines. Soumya Patnaik has been selected for his coloum ‘Ama Ghara Ra Halchal’.

Others in the list are Odissi music exponent Shyamamani Devi, noted Odissi dance exponent Dr Ileana Citaristi, Odia novelist Bhagirathi Das, author Prabhakar Swain, noted journalist Pradyumna Satapathy, noted translator Dr Jatin Nayak, noted linguist Dr Haraprasad Mishra, one-man archivist of Odia music, Dr Saroj Singh, international Odia manuscript expert Dr Shobha Rani Das, noted artist  Bijay Biswaal and Prashant Bhunya, who is working abroad for promotion of Odia language and literature.

In the organizational category, the award will be conferred on IFFCO Paradeep, Odia newspaper Prameya, Gyanamandal Foundation, managing Odia encyclopaedia Gyanamandal and Koraput Sahitya Mahotsav, working towards promoting literary exchanges in interior regions.

In addition, The Intellects honours, youth talent working towards popularising Odia language and culture among youth. This year, the recipients will be Rapper Big Deal (Samir Rishu Mohanty), the person behind the popular Mun Heli Odia rap song, Natia YouTube cartoon channel and Twitter handle Gajapati (Bishnu Mohan Adhikari).

The awards will be conferred virtually on February 21.