Odisha Citizen Awards-2019: Nominees Shortlisted For Voting Round

Bhubaneswar: Nominees for the Odisha Citizen Awards-2019 (OCA-2019) were finalized on Friday for the voting round. The selection committee of OCA-2019 has short listed four nominees each in nine different categories.

The annual Odisha Citizen Awards instituted by Odisha's No.1 news channel, OTV honours personalities to recognize their contribution to the society in their respective fields.

The shortlisted nominees will now enter the voting round. Earlier, the committee had selected eight names each from several entries in nine different categories namely Agriculture, Art and Culture, Industry, Education, Entertainment, Social Service, Sports, Health Services and Politics.

The winner of each category will be selected based on votes from public and views of the selection committee. The jury members who were present in the selection meeting on Friday included Odisha Finance Minister Panchanan Kanungo, Educationist Prof Umacharan Mohanty, social activist Sudarshan Das, Sports coach Amiya Kumar Mishra, Film director Basant Sahu, former VC of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), D P Roy, Odissi Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, Advisor of Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya Sangathan (ODVS) Bijoy Sahoo and noted neurosurgeon Ashok Mohapatra. Moreover, senior officials of the OTV were also present in the selection meeting.

“We had received nominations in nine different categories. We selected four persons from each category after scrutinizing them very closely,” informed Sudarshan Das.

“It doesn’t mean that other nominees except the candidates who will be receiving the awards are looked down upon. All of them are equal. It seems every one of them deserves the award and the Odisha Citizen Awards has been instituted only to inculcate the spirit of competition among them,” said Kanungo.