Goa govt scraps 2015-16 literature awards selection process

The awards were not given despite shortlisting of names, as there were allegations that some members of the selection committee recommended their own books.

The Goa government has scrapped the selection process for 2015-16 awards for Konkani literature.

Chief minister Manohar Parrikar last week asked the Official Language Department to declare the selection process as “null and void”.(Pratham Gokhale/HT File Photo)

The awards were not given despite shortlisting of names, as there were allegations that some members of the selection committee recommended their own books.

Chief minister Manohar Parrikar last week asked the Official Language Department to declare the selection process as “null and void”.

“Instructions from the chief minister are clear -- the selection process should be held null and void due to the controversies,” a senior official of the department said.

“It has been suggested that henceforth there will be only one centralised selection committee for all such awards,” he added.

State-run literature bodies Goa Konkani Academy and Gomantak Marathi Academy as well as the Directorate of Art and Culture will have their representatives on this committee, he said.

The awards for 2015-16 were to be given in sixteen categories.

“Members of short-listing committee recommended their own books for the award in one of the categories,” said the official.

The government was also unhappy as the selection committee members leaked the information about the selection of a book penned by renowned writer and former MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh, the official said.

`Sudirsukt’, Wagh’s poetry collection, had run into a controversy with some communities in the state taking exception to their portrayal in the poems.