The Yash Bharti Awards belong to the state and not to a political party, said recipients of this award led by poet Gopal Das ‘Neeraj’ while thanking chief minister Yogi Adityanath for understanding their point of view.
During a meeting at Lucknow Press Club on Tuesday, the awardees expressed their gratitude to the chief minister for supporting their demand for the release of their pension.
“The chief minister deserves praise from all of us. Yogi Adityanath has assured us on the release of pension. We expect the pension to be released soon,” said ‘Neeraj’ addressing the media after the meeting.
Dr Vishnu Saxena, singer Anoop Jalota, Iftekhar Nadeem Khan, Padma Gidwani, singer Kamaal Khan and kathak dancer Geetanjali appealed to the state government to consider Yash Bharti awards as awards of the state and not of any political party. They emphasised that artistes and social workers belong to the country and not to any political party.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Vishnu Saxena, singer Anoop Jalota, Iftekhar Nadeem Khan, Padma Gidwani, singer Kamaal Khan and kathak dancer Geetanjali appealed to the state government to consider Yash Bharti awards as awards of the state and not of any political party. They emphasised that artistes and social workers belong to the country and not to any political party.
{{/usCountry}}Anoop Jalota said, “I appeal to the state government to take this award to a new high by announcing the winners of this year too. There should be no politics over the awards as these belong to the state and not to any political party.”
The winners said, “The state government has the right to review the standards of winners, but those who are worthy of it must be given pension and other benefits associated with the awards.”
The Yash Bharti awardees were getting ₹50,000 pension per month besides a cash prize of ₹11 lakh by the state government for their contribution in the field of art, culture and public service.
The awards were instituted in 1994 by the then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to honour eminent personalities from UP for their outstanding contributions in the fields of literature, poetry, industry, theatre, films, journalism, social work, medicine, education, film, science, handicrafts, culture, music and sports.
In April last year, chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered a review of the Yash Bharti awards conferred on various personalities during the Samajwadi Party government’s regime. Since then, the pension of the awardees was not released.
The CM had ordered the review after allegations of the awards being given away arbitrarily by the previous regime. Consequently, the department of culture withheld all the benefits for the awardees, including the lifetime pension.
Earlier too, these awards were discontinued by the Mayawati government, from 2007 to 2012 . The Akhilesh Yadav government had restarted them in 2015.