Bhubaneswar, Feb 11: The mortal remains of prominent literary figure and former president of Odisha Sahitya Akademi Satakadi Hota were consigned to flames with full state honour at Swargadwara in Puri.
A retired IRTS officer and former divisional railway manager of Khurda Road, Hota was the editor of Odia daily Samay since its inception on October 2, 1996. Born at Jagannath Khunta in Mayurbhanj district, he pursued his education from Puri and Cuttack. He joined the Indian Railway Traffic Service in 1954 and was posted in West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
While being on deputation in Odisha from 1980 to 1985, he implemented some important railway infrastructure development projects in the state including sanction of Koraput-Rayagada railway line, Sambalpur-Talcher railway line and introducing new passenger and express trains to Odisha. Hota was also instrumental in setting up a new railway recruitment board at Bhubaneswar. Although he had been writing since his school days at Baripada, his focus shifted entirely to Odia literature and culture after he retired in 1987.
Author of around 60 books including essays, poetry, novels, short stories, autobiography and translation, he was also the founding president of Bhubaneswar Book Fair Committee which has been doing pioneering work in inculcating reading habit in people since 1985. The organisation has been holding annual book exhibitions since then.
Hota headed the Odisha Sahitya Akademi from 2013 to 2016. The litterateur made pioneering efforts to get classical status for Odia language by involving Sahitya Akademi, Odisha Bhasha Pratisthan, Utkal University of Culture and eminent scholars in preparing the document. And his efforts yielded results when the Culture Ministry notified Odia as a classical language on March 12, 2014.