New York: Hindi Scholars honoured at WHC

New York, July 16: Twenty Indians along with 20 other Hindi scholars living abroad were honoured here at the Eighth World Hindi Conference for their contribution in promotion of the language.

Though some of the scholars were not present at the ceremony, it was announced later that their momentoes would reach them.

Special Representative to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Dr Karan Singh, gave away the awards.

Dr Kedarnath Singh, Mahashweta Devi, Om Prakash Balmiki and Bekal were the prominent Indian scholars who did not attend the meeting.

When asked by reporters, Dr Karan Singh said he was not aware of the reason for the absence of these great scholars.

Unavoidable circumstances could have prevented their visit, he added.

Those honoured included Shri Achyutanand Mishra, M Sheshan, Premsnankar Gupt, Suryavanshi Chaudhary,Lallan Prasad Vyas, Sudesh Bharti, Ajit Gupta, Om Prakash, Arvind Dakshan, Jagdish Piyush, Mrs Sunita Jain, Mrs Shanta Bao, Professor Nirmala Jain, Dr Manikayamba and Mohan Dhariya.

Mr Mohan Dhariya's daughter Shadhna took the award on behahf of her father as he was not well.

Among Forign Laureates, Beersen Jugasingh (Mauritius), Padmesh Gupta (Britain), Professor Harman Olefen and Surendra Gambhir (United Nations), Chiyang Ingcoi(China), Mohan Kant Gautam (Netherland), Takesali Fugi (Japan), Professor Wu Zokim (South Korea) and Hardev (Surinam) bagged the prestgious awards.

UNI