Bhubaneswar: Meeting of the selection committee of the Odisha Citizen Award-2018 (OCA-2018) was held today for the first phase screening.
Like every year, the selection committee chose eight personalities from different areas such as Agriculture, Sports, Industry, Art and Culture, Entertainment, Politics, Social Service and Education.
The Odisha Citizen Award instituted by OTV, Odisha’s No.1 news channel, honours personalities from different fields to recognise their impressive work and provide them a public platform.
Ollywood actor Mihir Das; social activist Sudrasan Das; eminent sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra; Olympian Lazarus Barla; industrialist Tara Ranjan Patnaik; former finance minister Panchanan Kanungo and IIIT professor Gopal Krishna Nayak screened the nominations in the first phase.
“In my opinion, OCA is not an award, but an identity. This is an attempt to create an identity for Odisha. Today we have come together to select such personalities who have made a difference,” Kanungo said.
“I thank OTV for honouring personalities from different sectors for so many years,” said Tara Ranjan Patnaik.
Expressing similar views, sculptor Mohapatra stated, “Ranging from artists to businessmen and social activists, everyone is getting inspired with the award. With Lord Jagannath’s grace, the initiative by OTV is commendable.”