Members of Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly and Journalists, including Late Raja Das, former Senior Reporter and Sub-Editor of The Hitavada, were honoured for their excellent work in their respective fields during ‘Utkrishttata Alankaran Samaroh’ of Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha on the last day of the five-day Monsoon Session of the House, on Friday. Governor Anusuiya Uikey was the Chief guest of the award ceremony while Assembly Speaker Dr Charandas Mahant presided over. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was the distinguished guest while Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ravindra Choubey and Deputy Speaker Manoj Singh Mandavi were special guests. They honoured the MLAs with ‘Utkrisht Vidhayak’ award, Journalists with Utkrisht Sansadiya Patrakar’ and ‘Utkrisht Electronic Media Reporter’ awards for the year 2019 and 2020 respectively. Chandrashekhar Gangrade, Principal Secretary, Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, was also present on the dais. BJP MLA Sourabh Singh and Congress MLA Arun Vora were honoured as ‘excellent’ MLA for the year 2019.

 

Similarly, BJP MLA Narayan Chandel and Congress MLA Kuldeep Juneja were honoured as ‘excellent’ MLAs for the year 2020. Jhuma Das and Aryesh Das, wife and son of Late Raja Das, received the honour from the Governor, Chief Minister, Assembly Speaker and other guests present on the dais for the year 2020. Other journalists felicitated on the occasion were Surendra Shukla from Haribhoomi received the honour for 2019. In electronics media category, Mohan Tiwari of Bansal News and Deepak Sahu (cameraman) received the honour for 2019. R K Gandhi and Dilip Kumar Sinha (cameraman) from Sadhna News received the honour for 2020. Congratulating the MLAs and Journalists honoured on the occasion, Governor Anusuiya Uikey said that she had received the award of a ‘jagruk’ (vigilant) MLA at the age of 26 in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. She said that such award is recognition of the good work done by the MLAs and media persons. It will encourage them to do even better in the future.

 

She also appreciated both Ruling party and Opposition for the way they handled the impasse in the House and specially thanked the Speaker and the Chief Minister for the same. She further said that the vision of both government and the opposition should be the development of the state. Speaker Dr Charandas Mahant said that the Speaker’s role in the selection of award is very less. “I would like to clear this or else people will get me wrong after two MLAs from Janjgir were selected for excellent award,” said Dr Mahant. He expressed gratitude to the Governor. While expressing his deep sympathy for family members of Late Raja Das, he urged them to come over the situation and move ahead. He said that all possible held will be extended to the family of the senior journalist. Chief Minister said that such honour comes with new challenges. Journalism is a big challenge as journalists work under severe pressure from all-around. A congratulated all those who have been awarded and had a special word of console for the family of Raja Das. Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik described the honour as recognition of exemplary work done by the MLAs and the Journalists. The honour also gives a message to the society. Making a special mention of the work of Raja Das, Koushik assured of all possible cooperation to the family.