CM gives away Bangabibhushan, Bangabhushan & Mahanayak awards
KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday conferred Bangabibhushan, Bangabhushan and Mahanayak awards upon 39 eminent personalities from different fields, to acknowledge their exemplary contributions, at a gala event held here.
At the event, the Chief Minister announced that Bengal would host an International Music Festival at Red Road in the month of December, this year. The fiesta would be held over two days and two nights, where eminent musicians from across the country and abroad would perform.
“The state Information and Cultural Affairs department has already started preparations for organising the event,”Banerjee said.
The Bangabibhushan award was presented to seventeen persons, including three premier football clubs in the state –Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting Club.Noble laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Professor Bikash Sinha, Pandit Anindya Chatterjee (tabla), Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharjee, industrialists Radhe Shyam Goenka and Harsh Neotia, former Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee, Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet Bhattacharjee, Pandit Debojyoti Basu, Abul Bashar (author), Debshankar Halder (actor), journalist Ashok Dasgupta and economist Kaushik Basu were the recipients of Bangabibhushan.
Vinayak Banerjee’s mother Nirmala Banerjee accepted the honour on behalf of her son, who is presently out of India. Expressing her gratitude to the Chief Minister, Nirmala Banerjee said that her son desires to donate the token money that has been given along with the award to the Liver Foundation, which was agreed gleefully.
Kumar Sanu and Abhijeet Bhattacharjee said the love and honour that ‘Didi (Mamata Banerjee)’ bestowed upon them had made them come from another state to Kolkata.
“Didi has the power to draw us again and again to Bengal. I have been singing for 35 years but I have never received an honour like this,” Sanu said. The Chief Minister, while interacting with economist Kaushik Basu virtually, urged him to come to Bengal and contribute in further strengthening of the state’s economy.
The Bangabhushan award were conferred upon 20 eminent personalities, including industrialist Rudra Chatterjee, Dr Monimay Banerjee (Director of SSKM), Dr. Jogiraj Roy , Manoranjan Byapari, Professor Mahendralal Roy, Srijato , Bharat Chetri, Rabilal Tudu, Jeet Ganguly, Srijit Mukherjee, Deepak Adhikari popularly known as Dev, Rituparna Sengupta, Indrani Halder, Debasish Bhattacharjee and Jayanta Ghosal (both for journalism), Kaushiki Chakraborty, Wriddhiman Saha, Imon Chakraborty, June Malia and Leena Gangopadhyay.
Actors Sohom Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan received the Mahanayak award.
‘Didi has the power to draw us again and again to Bengal...’