Excelsior Correspondent
New Delhi, Aug 27: Noted writer and film personality Ved Rahi, who belongs to Jammu, completed a hat-trick of prestigious awards in about a month with President Pranab Mukherjee honouring him with the Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan Award for playing an important role in promoting the Hindi language and literature at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here today.
Amidst thundering applause at the historic Durbar Hall, Rahi, already a Sahitya Academy award winner, got the honour which carries a cash award of Rs 1 lakh. On July 24, the Jammu and Kashmir Governor had given the “Life Time Achievement Award”to Rahi at a function in Srinagar. On July 30, the Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Academy had similarly felicitated him in Mumbai which has been the major theatre of his activities during the last nearly six decades.
As the President conferred the decoration a citation read on the occasion described Rahi as an important literary figure of Hindi and Dogri and noted his fame as a film director and screen playwright as well as top serials written and directed for Doordarshan. It also mentioned his roles as a member of the Film Censor Board and general secretary of the Film Writers Association of India. It said the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, which had instituted the award, felt proud in honouring him.
The Kendriya Hindi Sansthan is an autonomous body under the Union Human Resource Development Ministry whose Union Minister Samriti Zubin Irani was present all through the function and later at a tea party held for the award winners and the invitees.
The awards in seven categories were given for 2010 and 2011. Rahi was awarded for 2011. The other winner in the same category was well-known Hindi writer Prof Asgar Wajahat.
In all, 28 Hindi writers and promoters were promoted today. They included famous Dogri poetess Padma Sachdev who was given along with three others the Gangasharan Singh award for 2010 for doing notable work for the Hindi language and two foreigners who got the George Grierson award for promoting Hindi abroad.
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