Presiding over the 29th meeting of the governing body of Himachal, Art, Cultural and language Academy here on Monday, Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh announced an increase in the amount of ‘Sahitya Awards’ and ‘Kala Samman’ to `51,000 and the amount of ‘Shikhar Samman’ awards to `1 lakh from the existing `51,000.
The Chief Minister also announced that the ‘Sahitya Awards’ for the year 2012 and 2015 and ‘Kala Samman’ for the year 2015 would soon be awarded. Apart from this, it was also decided in the meeting to organise Manohar Jayanti on April 12 to memorialise the internationally renowned Indian Theatre Actor-Director, Manohar Singh from the state.
Besides, the Chief Minster also suggested organising ‘Smriti Samaroh’ or some similar function in the name of Kaku Ram, a famous folk singer from Himachal Pradesh.
Directions were given to the department of Information and Public Relations to work together with the language, Art and Cultural academy to rearrange and further document the manuscript or the audio-videos of the famous singers, folk artists, litterateurs, pahari painters and writers and upload them on You-Tube so that the people anywhere in the world could have a glimpse of the rich culture, history, art and traditions of the state.
Virbhadra Singh also issued necessary directions to re-construct and renovate the ‘Wood-dale Hall’ to house the library of the academy which at present was being run in some private accommodation. The Chief Minister also issued directions to the education department to purchase at least 500 copies of the research magazine ‘Somasi’ published by the academy and said that there was a need to increase the copies to be circulated for the libraries of various schools and colleges of the state.
Earlier, Secretary, Himachal Art, Cultural and language Academy, Ashok Hans and Vice-Chairman, Dr Prem Sharma gave details of the activities of the academy.