Wheelchair-bound author takes fight for NBT dues to PM Modi

Sarmistha’s letter — which she chose to write in Assamese (“because I write in Assamese”) — said whenever she called up the standard answer she got was “It (her case) is under process.”

She said she had also taken up the matter with the NBT director.

“I have been compelled to write to you, Dear Prime Minister, because, I think only with your intervention will things begin to move and I will get justice,” she wrote in her letter.

“I cannot move about on my own because of my disability caused by my spinal muscular atrophy that afflicted me when I was about eight years old. But when I write, and when my writings and books are read by people, I have a feeling that I am moving around amid them,” she wrote.

NBT director Rita Choudhury, when contacted, said that Sarmistha Pritam’s case was being dealt with on priority.

“The decision to publish the English and Hindi versions of her book was taken before I took over. She called me up and told me the whole story. I have already asked for expediting her payment,” Choudhury, who is also an eminent Assamese author and winner of the Sahitya Akademi award, said.