TNI Bureau: Eminent writer, Sahitya Academy award winner and wife of freedom fighter Rajkishor Nayak, Nirmala Prabha Nayak breathed her last at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar on Monday evening. She was 83.

She is survived by six children including two sons and four daughters.

Her younger son Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak is a Minister in the Odisha Cabinet with Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare, Cooperation portfolios.

The book ‘Sayanhara Smruti’ of Nirmala Prabha Nayak won the Sahitya Academy Award for Literature. She donated lakhs of rupees given to her by the Academy authorities to Odisha Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Nirmala Prabha Devi received several awards including Sahitya Akademi Award. She received ‘Saraswat Sadhika’ award by Odisha Sahitya Akademi in 2020.