Sahitya Akademi refuses to encash cheques returned by awardees

Sahitya Akademi said that they decided not to encash cheques received by 35 Akademi award winners who returned their awards to mark of protest against the "rising intolerance" in the country and specifically the killing of Kannada writer MM Kalburgi. "We have received cheques by 35 authors but the Akademi has decided not to deposit the cheques to establish its refusal to accept the return of awards," K Sreenivas Rao, secretary, Sahitya Akademi said while announcing the awards for this year.