YANAM: Puducherry Minister for Art and Culture Malladi Krishna Rao on Saturday announced that a Telugu poet/writer would be felicitated during the Yanam Festival to be held here in January. He urged the writers and poets to name the eligible so that he could finalise the awardee and arrange the felicitation by the Chief Minister of the Union Territory.
“After taking the reins of the Tourism Department, I have made several changes to the age-old practices. Now, the eligible candidates for the ‘Padma’ awards need not send their applications, but the members of our search committee will meet each and everyone of them and finalise the list of candidates to be recommended to the Union government,” said Mr. Krishna Rao who was also holding six other portfolios including tourism in the Narayanasamy government.
Inaugurating the “Telugu Writers’ Meet” organised jointly by the Sahitya Akademi and Spoorthi Sahithi Samakhya here, Mr. Krishna Rao said that he had a special place for literature and been following the practice of browsing books whenever he was happy or sad. “The books open the doors of a new world and the writers and poets must be commended for their works,” he said.
Writer and poet Datla Devadanam Raju, also the in-charge of Spoorthi Sahitya Samakhya, profusely thanked the Sahitya Akademi for choosing the small town Yanam to conduct the event. “I am very happy that writers and poets from different parts of Andhra Pradesh are participating in this programme. There is a need to conduct similar programmes with frequent intervals for the benefit of both readers and the writers,” he observed.
Writer and literary critic Vadrevu Veeralakshmi Devi, who presided over the literary session, observed that students of schools and colleges too were making foray into the world of story-writing and receiving appreciation from the literary lovers. “The short-story writers need to think out of the box. Otherwise, it will be difficult to differentiate short stories from the daily news reports,” she said, while referring to a few stories that stood apart from the other works in the recent past. Writers Addepalli Prabhu, Chintakindi Srinivasa Rao, Devadanam Raju and G. Lakshmi read out their works, which was followed by recital of poetry in the session chaired by K. Sanjeeva Rao (Sikhamani). Director of the Telugu Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi N. Gopi and others were present.
