Haryana Government has decided to earmark a fund of Rs25 lakh for documentation of Punjabi folk songs in the State. The announcement was made by the Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, KK Khandelwal on behalf of Chief Ministe Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the presence of Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia during Punjabi Sahityakar Samman Samaroh organised here on Monday.
The Governor, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal and Minister of State for Information, Public Relations and Cultural Affairs, Shiv Charan lal Sharma gave awards to 28 litterateurs for the year 2011 and 2012 for their outstanding work in promotion of Punjabi literature during the Samman Samaroh organized by Haryana Punjabi Sahitya Akademi.
KK Khandelwal said that Sheikh Baba Farid was the first poet of Punjabi. Now Punjabi is spoken by about 14 crore people across 165 countries. He said the language is spoken by 38 per cent population residing in Haryana. He said that the State had done a lot for the promotion of Punjabi language. Before the year 2005, only a single samman with a prize money of Rs21,000 was given to Punjabi litterateurs. Even the budget of Akademi was merely Rs20 lakh at that time. The CM earlier enhanced the budget to Rs1crore and now the same had been increased to Rs1.5 crore. He said that during the function organized last year, the CM had announced that Rs1lakh cash prize would be given for Baba Sheikh Fareed Puraskaar which has materialised this year.