While presiding over the 29th meeting of the governing body of Himachal, Art, Cultural and Language Academy here today, Chief Minister Shri Virbhadra Singh announced for increasing the amount of ‘Sahitya Awards’ and ‘Kala Samman’ to Rs. 51 thousands and the amount of ‘Shikhar Samman’ awards to be enhanced to rupees one lakh from the existing Rupees 51 thousands.He 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 organize Manohar Jayanti on 12th April to memorialize the internationally renowned Indian Theatre Actor-Director, Manohar Singh from the state. Besides, the Chief Minster also suggested organizing ‘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.The Chief Minister 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.A decision was also taken to form a Service Committee to look into the service and the financial matters of the academy so as to streamline the working of the academy. It was also decided to enhance the activities of the academy.Earlier, Secretary, Himachal Art, Cultural and Language Academy, Shri Ashok Hans and Vice-Chairman, Dr. Prem Sharma welcomed the Chief Minster and detailed about the activities of the academy.Chairman Wool-federation, Shri Raghuvir Thakur, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance), Dr. Shrikant Baldi, ACS, (Education) Shri P.C. Dhiman, Secretary, (Language, Art and Culture) Smt. Anuradha Thakur, Director, Information and Public Relations, Dr. M.P. Sood, Director, Language, Art and Culture, Shri Arun Kumar Sharma, were also present on the occasion amongst the non-official members of the academy.