Sansar Chander bags Haryana Sahitya Ratan Samman

Chandigarh, Mar 28 (UNI) Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is also the Chairman of the Haryana Sahitya Akademi, has a nnounced awards of the Akademi for the year 2007-08.

The most prestigious award of the Akademi ''Haryana Sahitya Ratan Samman'', which carries a cash prize of Rs two lakh has been conferred on Dr Sansar Chander of village Meerpur, who has authored over 40 books on various disciplines of literature.

The award has been conferred upon the Haryana domicile writer for lifelong outstanding service in the field of literature.

Similarly, another prestigious award of the Akademi 'Mahakavi Surdas Samman', which carries a cash prize of Rs one lakh has been bestowed to Dr Manmohan Singh of Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak.

This award is given to Haryana domicile litterateur, who has made outstanding contribution in the promotion of Hindi and Haryanavi literature. As many as five books written by Dr Singh have so far been published.

Mr Tara Panchal of Kurukshetra and Mr Raj Kishan Nain of village Ajaib in Rohtak district have been chosen for 'Babu Balmukund Gupt Samman (Literature)' and 'Babu Balmukund Gupt Samman (Journalism in Literature)' respectively.

A cash amount of Rs 50,000 each is given under these awards.

'Pandit Lakhmi Chand Samman' has been awarded to Mr Kanwal Haryanavi and Dr Shyam Sakha Shyam. Both the awardees will be given a sum of Rs 50,000 each.

'Haryana Gaurav Samman', which carries a cash prize of Rs 51,000 has been given to Prof Abhay Maurya of village Padla, district Kaithal.

This award is given to such litterateurs as are born in Haryana but presently living outside the State, who have brought laurels to the State for their outstanding contribution in the field of literature.

More than 40 research books and articles by Mr Maurya have been published in the country and abroad.

UNI JN VD AS1712