Arunachal society to honour Ramchandra Chutia & Ashok Pandey with literary award

Itanagar: The Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society (APLS) will confer the Luminous Lummer Dai Literary Award to Ramchandra Chutia and Dr Ashok Kumar Pandey for 2025.

The award will be presented on 85th birth anniversary of the doyen of Arunachal literature, Lummer Dai, on June 1 at Lummer Dai Bhavan, Tezpur, Assam.

A selection committee comprising chairman H Rokom Bado and members Banta Natung and Gumpu Nguso recommended their names.

Ramchandra Chutia, born in Assam's Dhakuakhana in 1952, has penned 29 books, including eight on socio-anthropological aspects of different tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. His literary works contain a variety of genres such as poems, novels, short stories, travelogues, articles and memories in both Assamese and English. He served in Arunachal Pradesh as a primary school teacher at Sartam village in Tali circle in 1971 and retired as the principal of a govt higher secondary school, Doimukh, in 2010, after serving for 40 years.

Dr Ashok Pandey, associate professor in the department of commerce at Dera Natung Govt College, Itanagar, has written 11 books.

Born in Uttar Pradesh in 1967, he came to Arunachal in 1992. His literary works include poetry, short stories and drama. Pandey is also a prominent academic writer and his five academic books have been widely appreciated.

Since its inception in 2016, 11 prominent writers have been conferred the prestigious award, including Kaling Borang (2016), Mamamg Dai (2017), Dr Jogendra Nath (2018), Tagang Taki (2019), Chandra Kanta Borpatra Gohain and Ramendra Nath Koley (2020 jointly), Yumlam Tana (2021), Ajanta (2022), Jumsi Siram (2023) and Wangsam Zongsam and Thajam Aboh (2024 jointly).