May 20, 2014
WB Government honours eminent citizens with Bangabibhushan and Bangabhushan awards
Satyajit Ray`s “Charulata” Madhabi Mukherjee and FormerIndian soccer captain Bhaichung Bhutia were among the 33 people to beconferred West Bengal`s highest civilian awards to mark the third anniversaryof the Trinamool Congress government.
West Bengal ChiefMinister Ms. Mamata Banerjee and West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan honoured 13 eminent people with “Bangabibhusan” and 20 others with “Bangabhusan” for theiroutstanding contribution in respective fields.
Among the “Bangabibhusan“recipients were Lepcha tribal leader Sonam Tshering Lepcha, vocalist ArunBhaduri, proprietor of “jatra” (folk theatre) group Natta Company MakhanlalNatta, physician Sukumar Mukherjee, film stars Madhabi Mukhopadhyay andDipankar De, Justice Md Abdul Gani, writer Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri,educationist Felix Raj, singers Haimanti Shukla and Mohan Singh, and dancerAlakananda Roy.
Those who were conferred “Bangabhusan” include Bhutia, former soccer internationals BideshBose, Goutam Sarkar, Shabbir Ali and Shyam Thapa, sarod maestro TejendranarayanMajumder, social activist Md Abdul Wahab, journalist Bachan Singh Saral andtribal leader Birsa Tirkey.
Other “Bangabhusan” awardees were actors Debashree Roy andAparajita Adya, singers Srikanta Acharya, Indranil Sen, SwagatalakshmiDasgupta, Indrani Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, cricketers Laxmi Ratan Shukla and ManojTiwary, chess grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly.
Excerpts from the Chief Minister`s speech on the occasion:
I welcome the Hon`ble Governor of WestBengal, the recipients of the Bangabibhushanand Bangabhushan awards and everyonepresent here. These awards were started by our Government three years back. Onthis day, three years back the Maa, Mati,Manush Government came to power. We are grateful to the people of Bengalfor their blessings and support over the last three years. We dedicate this dayto the people of Bengal.
People from different profession and walks oflife are being felicitated today for their contribution in their respectivefields. We are honoured to be able to felicitate all the recipients. The Bangabibhushan and Bangabhushan awards are a way of letting the world know about thetalent of Bengal.
Let the dreams of Bengal be projectedthrough Biswa Bangla in this manner.We still believe that the path of Bengal is the future path of the country. Wewill build Bengal as a model for the rest of the world to emulate.
