The government has cancelled the list of recipients for the Bangla Academy Literary Award 2024, which was announced two days ago to honour ten individuals for their contributions to Bangla literature.

Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki announced the cancellation in a post on his verified Facebook account on Saturday.

"The odd policies that lead to such ridiculous and petty award opportunities need to be reviewed urgently, and that is our first priority. We also need to reassess how the Bangla Academy will be managed and the policies it will follow—all of these aspects," he said in the post.

Farooki added, "We are pushing for a complete reform of the academy now. If the country is to undergo reform, why not the Bangla Academy?"

The academy later confirmed the matter through a notice on its official Facebook page, signed by the Director-General of Bangla Academy, Professor Mohammad Azam. The notice stated that a meeting of the Bangla Academy Literary Award Committee 2024 was held at 6 p.m. today at the Bangla Academy to reconsider the previously announced list of recipients.

The cancellation was prompted by some allegations regarding certain individuals on the award list, in light of the current socio-political situation. A decision has been made to investigate these allegations before the list is republished.

On Thursday, the academy had announced the names of the winners, which included Salimullah Khan for Essay, Masud Khan for Poetry, Selim Morshed for Fiction, Subhasish Sinha in Drama, Faruk Newaz in Children's Literature, GH Habib for Translation, Muhammad Shahjahan Mia for Research, Rezaur Rahman in Science, Mohammad Hannan in Liberation War, and Syed Jamil Ahmed, the current Director-General of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA), in the Folklore category. However, some netizens questioned the inclusion of certain names due to their literary activities during the ousted Awami League regime.