Nepal Vidyapati Award Fund distributed various Maithili literary awards established in the name of Maithili Great Poet Vidyapati to five literary personas on Friday.
At the award ceremony held at Kosh Janakpurdham, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jeevan Ram Shrestha presented the Nepal Vidyapati Award 2078 to five creators of various literary genera. Minister Shrestha presented Nepal Vidyapati Maithili Language Literature Award to Rameshranjan Jha, Nepal Vidyapati Maithili Art Culture Award to Nirmala Jha and Ashok Kumar Dutt, Nepal Vidyapati Research Award to Surya Prasad Yadav and Nepal Vidyapati Manuscript Award to Arjun Prasad Gupta.
The purse of Nepal Vidyapati Maithili Language Literature Award is Rs. 200,000 while other awardees received Rs. 100,000 each. Addressing the programme, Minister Shrestha said that the government was committed to the protection of language and literature.
He also expressed his commitment to preparing a revised cultural policy in the coming days for the preservation and enhancement of language in federal Nepal. He said, “Our country with linguistic and cultural diversity should be able to convey the message of unity within diversity.” He congratulated all the awardees and advised them to continue to create literature.
According to Minister Shrestha, the award fund had established in the name of famous poet Vidyapati of the 14th century to honour the creators of Maithili language when CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal was prime minister. This step was a respect for Maithili language which is the second most spoken language in Nepal, Minister Shrestha added.
Source : TRN,
