AIR annual awards given away in city

The All India Radio annual awards function 1999 was organised in Ahmedabad on Saturday. This is the second time it is being held outside Delhi.

Governor Sundar Singh Bhandari and Union home minister L.K. Advani distributed the prizes on this occasion. Union minister for Information and broadcasting Arun Jaitley, speaking on the occasion said that the AIR has played an important role in popularising the classical music in the country. He said that at present the AIR programme reaches to about 98 per cent of the country and caters to around 110 million listeners. He said the AIR will give more emphasis on strengthening its foreign language broadcasting to make them aware of the happenings of the country.

The eastern states got the maximum numbers of awards this year, especially Orissa, which remained the leading award taker. The first prize for radio drama went to Pashu an Oriya drama and the second prize in this section went to Telgu play Donga. Award for the best radio documentary went Ab Aur Nahin by AIR Jaipur, second prize in this section went to Bangala documentary Yatragaan. Award for the musical programmes was received by the AIR Jaipure, Cuttack for Mayavi asur and the second prize was received by a Bangali programme, Megh Roder Kavya. Once again Yuvvani award went to Lout Raha Hoon Main Abhimanyu by the AIR Bhavanipatna, Orissa. The Lasa Kaul award, which is given for national integration went to a Hindi play, Raushani ki Aur, by AIR Shimla. The L.K Sharma award for the best correspondent of the AIR went to its Delhi correspondent, Ms Sarita Barara, who had done excellent reporting on the recent cyclone of Orissa.

The awards for the technical side were also given on this occasion. Award ceremony was followed by cultural programmes, which started with the Garba. But Dances of Nagaland stole the show; followed by the "Mor Pankh dance" of Kerala.

Republished from Asian Age