MP’s Prestigious Awards Delayed For Years, Several Honours Yet To Be Announced

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The announcement of most of the awards instituted by the Madhya Pradesh government for recognising talent, achievement and excellence in different fields has been delayed for years.

Awards in the fields of literature, the arts, sports and social service are neither announced nor conferred on time.

The Culture and Sports and Youth Welfare Departments administer most of the awards. The Culture Department administers both national and state honours.

The Shikhar Samman, Rashtriya Kabir Samman, Rashtriya Sharad Joshi Samman and Rashtriya Maithli Sharan Gupta Samman have been pending since 2023. Rashtriya Iqbal Samman was last announced in 2021 and has been pending since then.

Rashtriya Kalidas Samman was last conferred for the 2022-23 period. Similarly, Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar Samman and Rashtriya Kishore Kumar Samman haven’t been announced since 2024.

Rashtriya Tansen Samman is one award which is being regularly conferred. It is presented during the annual Tansen Festival organised at Gwalior.

The Rashtriya Mahatma Gandhi Award for social service and promotion of Gandhian philosophy, administered by the Culture Department, includes a cash prize of Rs 20 lakh.

It was last conferred for the 2024-25 cycle. The All India Indira Gandhi Award, on the other hand, remains unannounced for more than a decade.

The Madhya Pradesh Urdu Academy confers two main categories of literary honours for books published in Urdu. Of them, six are all-India awards with Rs 51,000 cash prize each.

They include Mir Taqi Mir Award, Hakim Kamrul Hasan Award, Hamid Saeed Khan Award, Shadaan Indori Award, Johar Qureshi Award, Abraham Joseph Award.

There are 13 regional awards, including the Siraj Mir Khan Sahar Award, Basit Bhopali Award, Nida Fazli Award, Jaan Nisar Akhtar Award and Shari Bhopali Award, each carrying a cash prize of Rs 31,000. These awards, too, have been delayed by two years.

The 2021 and 2022 awards were announced in April 2023. For the 2025 awards, applications were invited by the Academy by Feb 2, 2026. The awards are yet to be announced.

The Department of Sports and Youth Welfare confers Eklavya Award, Vikram Award, Vish-wamitra Award, and Life Time Achievement Award. These are awarded annually to athletes from different sports genres and to coaches.

They are often announced in batches, together for several years. Announcement schedules have frequently lagged by two years behind the current sporting season.

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There is no delay. It is routine work. In fact, we have cleared many years’ backlog over the past two years.

-          Sheo Shekhar Shukla , ACS, Culture