The Akhilesh Yadav Government has decided to confer Yash Bharati on 54 personalities including Sabri brothers from Pakistan, folk singers, cricketers, actors and poets.
The award will be given away by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on October 27.
The award carries Rs 11 lakh cash and citation besides the awarded person can also avail Rs 50,000 monthly pension if they desire so.
The names of the Yash Bharati winners were declared here on Sunday.
However, the surprise name in the list was Pakistani Qwawali singers Aftab and Hasim commonly known as Sabri Brothers. Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and waterman (Jal Purush) Rajendra Singh were selected for the award this year.
The other awardees include former UP minister and veteran congress leader Swarup Kumari Bakshi, Ustad Gulfam (classical music), Soni Chaurasia (Kathak), Kashi Nath Yadav (Folk song), Mohammad Aslam Warsi (Sufi singing), Sayeed Mohammad Basir Badr (education and literature) and Suman Yadav for sports.
The cricketers who have been awarded are Gyanendra Pandey, Praveen Kumar, Bhuvenshwar Kumar and Piyush Chawla while the actors who got the award are Nasiruddin Shah, Deepraj Rana, Saurabh Shukla, lyrists Santosh Anand and Manoj Muntisar, director Atul Tiwari and Anubhav Sinha.
Para-olympic player Varun Kumar, Mountaineer Arjun Vajpayee, Gargi Yadav and Ram Milan Yadav (both wrestling) and photograhper Ravi Kapoor wil get Yash Bharati. Journalists Yogesh Mishra and Ashok Nigam were also selected for the awards this year.
