Kalam confers Chhattisgarh 'Rajyotsav' awards

Raipur, Nov 7 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today conferred 17 'Rajyotsav' awards to 25 persons during the concluding ceremony of the seven-day celebrations to mark the sixth anniversary of formation of Chhattisgarh.

The awards, instituted by the state government for outstanding contribution in various fields, carries Rs two lakh in cash and a citation.

Mr Shireesh Chandra Mishra, a journalist with 'Varta' the Hindi news agency of United News of India, and Mr Sanjay Dixit working for Hindi weekly ' Democratic world' have been awarded the 'Chandulal Chandrakar memorial Journalism fellowship.

The President conferred Shahid Veer Narain Samman on Gondi Vidya Peeth, Bastar and on Mr Mangal Singh Nagdev while Agrasen Go Sewa Sadan, Ambikapur, and Dr Chandra Kumar Jain received the honour of Yatanlal Samman.

President Kalam conferred Gundadur Samman on Ms. Preeti Banchor and Ms. Reena Sahu. Guru Ghasidas samman was shared by Mahant Domanlal and Diwanchandra Sonwani.

The President also conferred the Mini Mata samman on Shyamsad Begum, Thakur Pyarelal samman to Pragati Mahila Cooperative Bank Bhilai, Haji Hassan Ali samman for promotion of Urdu to Kavish Haidri and Maulana Mohammad Ali Farooqui.

Similarly, Dr Dinesh Chandra Mishra and Mr Hassan Khan jointly received the Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla samman for the outstanding work in the field of social, economic and education.

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