Even as popular Koshali folk poet Haladhar Nag has made Odisha proud by getting Padmashree, the State Government did not recommend his name for the country’s coveted civilian honour.
Nag had not figured in the list of 30 persons the State Government recommended for the award. However, film director Nila Madhav Panda, who also received Padmashree this year, was in the State Government’s list.
A committee headed by former State Chief Secretary Subas Pani and comprising writer Satakadi Hota, former university VCs Priyambada Mohanty and Omkar Nath Mohanty, sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and Minati Mohapatra had shortlisted 30 eminent persons of the State for the Padma Award-2016.
While Prof Manoj Das was recommended for the Padma Bibhushan by the committee, spiritual leader Chandrabhanu Satpathy, former hockey player Dilip Tirkey and lalit Mohan Patnaik were nominated for the Padma Bhushan award.
Besides, 26 others who were recommended by the panel for the Padmashree award included Alok Kanungo, Anant Moharana, Aruna Mohanty, Banamali Moharana, Veerbar Sahoo, Prof Chandrasekhar Rath, Devdutt Patnaik, Durga Charan Ranbir, Durgaprasad Das, Dr.Jadunath Prasad Das, Jagannath Prasad Das, Krishna Mohanty, Maguni Charan Kuwanr, Nila Madhav Panda, Padmanav Mishra, Prafulla Mohanty, Pranab Patnaik, Prashant Nanda, Ramani Ranjan Jena, Ratan Das, Sabyasachi Mohapatra, Shantanu Kumar Acharya, Satakadi Hota, Subrato Bagchi, Subrat Kumar Panda and Swadhin Patnaik.
The Central Government preferred Nag taking into account the brilliant contributions to Koshali language by this Class-III dropout.
The BBC has made a documentary on Nag. There are four research papers on him as well. His life and work are a case study at the Harvard University.
Sources said that on earlier occasions too, many personalities received the Padma award without the State Government’s recommendation.
In 2015, the State Government had recommended 27 names, out of which only musician Prafulla Kar was conferred Padmashree. The Centre had selected sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik for Padmashree in 2014 out of the 11 recommendations sent from the State.
Notably, as many as 75 people from Odisha have been awarded the Padmashree, Padma Bhushan and Padma Bibhushan till date, said officials.