Cuttack, June 30: The Utkal Sahitya Samaj (USS) will confer the prestigious Utkal Ratna award on Ramakant Panda, an eminent cardiac surgeon of international repute.

USS president Bijayananda Singh said the decision to confer the Utkal Ratna award to Panda, the Bhasa Samman award to novelist Prafulla Kumar Tripathy and 24 other persons with various awards in different fields was taken at the executive body meeting of the USS last evening.

"The awards will be given on the occasion of the 113th convocation of the USS at the Satabdi Bhavan in Cuttack on July 12," Singh said.

The other luminaries nominated for the awards in various creative categories are Manasi Das (novel), Sushmita Rath (short story), Pradip Kumar Rath (drama), Aswini Kumar Mishra (poetry), Choudhury Satyabrata Nanda (science literature), Debendra Kumar Dash (essay), Ramesh Patri (children's literature), Banoja Mohanty (art and culture), Bijay Kumar Nanda (translation), Bhagwan Prakash (sambad sahitya), Kulamani Jena (spiritual literature), Banoja Devi (Lekhika Sanman), Matlub Ali (biography), Sampad Mohapatra (journalism), Pitabash Routray (comic literature), Govardhan Dash (autobiography), Brindaban Jena (lyrics), Shantanu Mohapatra (music), Truti Das (song), Anil Dey (travelogue), Baishnab Charan Mohanty (satirical literature), Kailash Chandra Tikayatray (cultural organisation), Akhila Kumar Mishra (young writers award) and Shashiprava Samantaray (publishing).

The sahitya samaj is the oldest literary institution of the state.