By TCN News,
New Delhi: Thirteen young winners of ‘Bal Bharati Essay Competition –2010’ were awarded by the Publications Division of Central Government. They got the awards at the hands of Smt. Praveen Nair, Chairperson of Salaam Baalak Trust, New Delhi, in a function organised by the Publications Division here today. The annual awards were presented to the school children for their best essays on the topic ‘Badhate Log, Ghatataa Panee’.
The First prize went to the essay written by Mohammad Sakib Khan of Delhi while second and third prizes were won by Savita of Gurgaon (Haryana) and Gauri Shrivastava of Delhi respectively. Ten other children were given commendation certificates along with prize money. These are: Poorva, Priyam Sneh, Charuta Gupta, Rishabh Garg, Sauhard Dobhal, Raja Vikram, Mohammed Anas ‘Raja’, Ku. Uma Devi, Dushyant Kumar Phekar and Shubham Tiwari.
Chairperson of Salaam Baalak Trust, New Delhi, Praveen Nair addressing at the Bal Bharati Essay Competition-2010 awards ceremony, in New Delhi on June 28, 2011. Joint Secretary (P&A), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai and the Additional Director General, Publications Division, Arvind Manjit Singh are also seen.
About a thousand school children from across the country participated in the annual competition this time. The winning children came from far off cities like Sonbhadra (UP), Siwan (Bihar), Durg (Chhattisgarh), Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand), Tonk (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Bhopal (MP) and Ranchi (Jharkhand).
Smt. Arvind Manjit Singh, the Additional Director General, Publications Division congratulated the winners of the essay competition. In her welcome address she stated that being published since 1948, Bal Bharti was one among the oldest and the largest circulated children’s magazines in the country. Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Joint Secretary (P&A) was the Guest of Honour in the function. Speaking on the occasion, Ganai said the Ministry of I&B would undertake all efforts to popularise reading habits amongst children by focussing on quality content in children’s magazine such as ‘Bal Bharti’.
Started in 1941, Publications Division today is one among the biggest publishing organizations in India. It publishes books in all the thirteen languages scheduled in the Constitution. Yojana – published in 13 languages simultaneously, Kurukshetra in Hindi and English, literary magazine Ajkal in Hindi and Urdu and children’s magazine Bal Bharati in Hindi are the magazines published by the Division. With a mandate to bring out authentic and reasonably priced books and magazines for all age-groups on matters of national importance, the Division has published over 8000 titles.