Nitish Kumar, Somnath Chatterjee to get statesmanship award

Patna, Jan 17 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumarand former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee have beenselected for the Ramkrishna Vivekananda InternationalFoundation (RKVIF) award in the statemanship category, anofficial release said today.

The duo were selected for the RKVIF award by anemminent 12-member jury comprising former bureaucrat C PAlexander, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap and others inrecognition of their contribution to the public life, it said.

The jury has taken into account Kumar''s effortstowards nation building and advocacy of development-orientedpolitics with a thrust of clean image, the release said.

Reacting to the award conferred on him, the ChiefMinister said that he dedicated it to 11-crore people who hadcontributed positively to public life and taken the state onthe path of development and prosperity.

"The conferment of these awards has put moreresponsibility on me to stride forward to bring developmentlaced with justice to the state and its people", he said. PTIKDK MM