Instituted by Odisha's No.1 news channel, OTV, the annual Odisha Citizen Award 2021 (OCA-2021) was conferred to nine personalities in recognition of their contribution to the society in their respective fields, from Agriculture, Art and Culture, Industry, Education, Entertainment, Social Service, Sports to Health Services and Politics.
The awards were given away at a special function held in Cuttack which was attended by Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi as the chief guest. BJP leader Pradeep Purohit, Congress leaders Pradeep Majhi and Tara Bahini Pati were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Sarangi said, "I think identifying and honouring works of those working for the welfare of people is a commendable step towards bringing positive change to the society."
Odisha Television Ltd. MD & Co-founder Jagi Mangat Panda said that the core objective of OCA is to recognise and encourage people who are working for the betterment of the society.
"The main objective of organising this programme every year is to bring those personalities who are working for the society to limelight and honour them," said Panda.
Basing on a joint value of jury marks and public votes, the OCA-2021 nominees were selected, and were presented the honours today.
Here is the list of the winners:
1) Politics: Saptagiri Ulaka ( Congress)
2) Education: Kishore Kumar Basa: VC North Odisha University
3) Social Service: Subash Chandra Gajendra
4) Sports: Deep Grace Ekka
5) Entertainment: Subas Dash (Singer)
6) Agriculture: Jayanti Mohapatra
7) Art & Culture: Surendra Meher
8) Business: Deben Ray (Spice Up)
09) Health: Dr. Mahendra Tripathy (Cardiologist)
"I thank OTV for appreciating and honouring people from nine different fields for their works. I got the award in Politics category. I thank the jury and viewers," said Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka adding that youths and educated people need to join politics to bring change.
Cardiologist Dr. Mahendra Tripathy said, "I am very much thankful to the organisers of Odisha Citizens Award. I think it will encourage me to work hard and hard, and also give services, particularly to the poorer section of people."
Shortlisted nominees for the Odisha Citizens Award 2021 were earlier marked by the jury as per their merit for the online voting round. At least four nominees were short listed for each of the nine different categories who then entered the online voting round.