Amid police deployment, the village meeting, where a local writer and this year"™s Sahitya Akademi awardee had been asked to apologise, was cancelled on Sunday.

The writer, Khetrabasi Naik of Santika village in the district, bagged the Central Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar this year for his short story collection "˜Dadan"™.

The book, which narrates the pathos and pain of migrant labourers of the district, was published in 2011.

After declaration of the award, Kalakanhu Sahu and Mukhi Seth of the same village filed an FIR at Loisingha police station alleging that the story Dadan-2 of the book is not based on facts. They said the character Ganesh in the story was not a migrant labourer. Due to the story, Sahu family was feeling ashamed, they added.

After the FIR was filed, Loisingha IIC called the writer and complainants and directed to hold a village meeting on October 6 where the writer would apologise and his book will be burnt.

When the news spread, the police step was flayed by writers and members of Odisha advisory committee of Central Sahitya Akademi. As damage control, Balangir SP R Prakash assured Khetrabasi that no such meeting will take place and police would intervene to avoid any untoward incident in the village. Following this, the village meeting was cancelled and Balangir SDPO Narayan Naik and Loisingha IIC Narendra Swain camped at Santika village on Sunday.

Talking to mediapersons, Khetrabasi said he has written the story based on the migration problems of his district. All the characters are fictitious.