Sahitya Ratna Awards announced

The Punjab Language Department has announced Sahitya Ratna and Shiromani Awards for 18 different categories of literature and art. The awards were finalised in a meeting of the State Advisory Board chaired by Higher Education and Languages Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa.

Punjabi Sahit Ratan for the year 2015 has been awarded to Om Prakash Gasho, to Gurbhajan Bhullar for 2016, to Gulzar Singh Sandhu for 2017, to Fakhr Zaman for 2018, to Dr Tejwant Mann for 2019 and Dr Barjinder Singh Hamdard has been selected for 2020.

Shiromani Punjabi Sahitkar award has been bestowed on Joginder Singh Kairon for 2015, Taran Gulzar for 2016, KL Garg for 2017, Atarjit Singh for 2018, Kirpal Kazak for 2019 and Dr Manmohan has been selected for 2020.

Shiromani Hindi Sahitkar has been given to Vinod Shahi for 2015, Sukhwinder Kaur Bath for 2016, Raji Seth for 2017, Bali Singh Cheema for 2018, Ajay Sharma for 2019 and Dr Kirti Kesar has been selected for 2020.

Shiromani Urdu Sahitkar has been given to Mohammad Fayaz Farooqi for the year 2015, Nadeem Ahmed Nadeem for 2016, TN Raj for 2017, B. D. Kalia Hamdam for 2018, Mohammad Bashir for 2019 and Rehman Akhtar for 2020.

Shiromani Sanskrit Sahitkar for Rama Kant Angrish for 2015, Ved Prakash Upadhyay for 2016, Damodar Jha for 2017, Kanhiya Lal Parashar for 2018, Virender Alankar for 2019 and Dr Sharan Kaur for 2020.

The Punjab Rattan Award, is an award given by the Government of Punjab for exceptional excellence and achievement in the service of Punjab or international level in the field of art, literature, culture, science, technology, politics and achievements at the international level.

Sahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1955, by the Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, to writers and their works, for their outstanding contribution to the upliftment of Indian literature and Punjabi literature in particular. it as well as for translations. This is the second highest literary award of India, after Jnanpith Award. No awards were given in years, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1966.