DELHI based Senior journalist Nikhil Bhattacharya has passed away aged 86 .He is survived by his wife and a daughter .
Born in Narail , Jessore , now in Bangladesh, he along with other members of his family moved to Kolkata after Partition. Influenced by his elder brother Anil Bhattacharya, who was an established journalist in Kolkata, he graduated in journalism from Calcutta University. After a stint with the National Library, he joined the newly floated the United News of India.
He was later appointed as the head of UNI’s Eastern Bureau in Odisha. Initially, he functioned from Cuttack and then moved his Odisha headquarters of UNI to Bhubaneswar .
His single minded devotion to journalism and project Odisha through national dailies was admired by political class in the state.After posting in UNI’s New Delhi head office in 1972 where he was political and parliamentary affairs Special Correspondent, he was moved to Kolkata after some years as the Regional Manager of UNI ‘s eastern India.
He returned to New Delhi ten years later and was promoted as the Deputy Chief of Bureau of the international news agency from he superannuated in 1992. He joined the Dainik Sambad, the popular daily published from Agartala after retirement as its national bureau chief. Due to failing health, he had stopped working for it some years ago.
Prasanta Patnaik