On the occasion of 74th Republic Day, as many as 13 distinguished personalities from North East India have been conferred with the year’s Padma Awards.
The awards were conferred by the Ministry of Home Affairs today.
List of awardees –
Assam: Hemoprava Chutia (Art), Hem Chandra Goswami (Art) and Ramkuiwangbe Jene (Social Work).
Tripura: Narendra Chandra Debbarma (Posthumous) and Bikram Bahadur Jamatia (Social Work).
Meghalaya: Risingbor Kurkalang (Art)
Arunachal Pradesh: Karma Wangchu (Posthumous),
Mizoram: KC Runremsangi (Art)
Sikkim: Tula Ram Upreti (Others Agriculture)
Manipur: K Shanathoiba Sharma (Sports) and Thounaojam Chaoba Singh (Public Affairs)
Nagaland: Neihunuo Sorhie (Art) and Moa Subong (Art).
Tula Ram Upreti was chosen for his contribution to agriculture, Hemoprava Chutia, Hem Chandra Goswami, Risingbor Kurkalang, and KC Runremsangi for their contributions to art, Narendra Chandra Debbarma and Chaoba Singh for their contributions to public affairs, Jene, Jamatia, and Wangchu for their contributions to social work, and Shanathoiba Sharma for sports.
Hem Chandra Goswami, who has been conferred the Padma Shri award said that he is very happy about it.
"I am very happy to hear the news. I was associated with "Mukha Silpa" (Art of Mask making) since my childhood and I always try to bring forward the art given by our Guru (Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev). Today the Guru's Satriya art has received recognition. My father Late Rudra Kanta Goswami was also my art Guru. Today, I remember his words as he told me that, we would have to keep alive the art," he said.
