PANAJI
In a major setback to Konkani writers, the State government has cancelled 32 literary awards bestowed by the academy for 2015 and 2016 after finding discrepancies in the selection of books for the awards.
What began as a controversy over Vishnu Wagh's book ‘Sudhir Sukta' ended up with the government cancelling the awards for the last two years and forming an independent committee to select the winners in future.
Incidentally, these awards were not presented in 2015 and 2016, following an internal dispute between the GKA board and the Directorate of Official Languages (DOL).
According to reports, there was a hue and cry after information got leaked that the GKA had decided to give one literary award to Wagh's ‘Sudhir Shukta', a collection of poems.
Incidentally, Wagh's book had not been included in the final list of books selected by the panel, but was allegedly added at the last moment by Director of Official Languages Dr Prakash Wazarikar on grounds that he was within his rights to add books to the selection list.
While the panel was scrutinizing the books, one member from the panel leaked the results, before they were officially announced.
Following an outcry among the Konkani literature fraternity and on online social media, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar convened a meeting with officials from the DOL on Friday and decided to cancel the awards for 2015 and 2016. He also instructed GKA to present awards to books to be published from next year.
Accordingly, the GKA has been asked to cancel as many as 32 awards, which included cash prizes of ` 25,000 for Literary awards and ` 50,000 as Seva awards for contribution to literature and development of Konkani language.
Literary awards have been awarded by GKA to writers of poetry, novels, dramatics, essays-travelogue, research-classical, review, child literature and translation materials. The GKA has been presenting awards in various categories of Sahitya Pratibha, Sahitya Pradnya, Shenoi Goibab, Konkani language service, Madhav Manjunath Kokani language service and Konkani art.
Following resignation of Madhav Borkar as president of GKA amid allegations that funds were not allotted to the academy, the temporary charge of GKA president was handed over Director of Official Languages Dr Prakash Wazarikar.
