President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday presented the Padma awards to 54 noted personalities.
112 eminent personalities from various fields were announced for this year’s Padma awards on the eve of Republic Day and 47 dignitaries were conferred the awards on March 11.
The remaining awards were presented on Saturday in the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other cabinet ministers including Harsh Vardhan, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Vijay Goel.
The list of awardees included folk singer Teejan Bai, Larsen and Toubro Chairman Anil Kumar Naik, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Darshan Lal Jain, MDH Founder CEO Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati, noted tabla player Swapan Chaudhuri, former Editor of “Panchjanya” Devendra Swarup and Ladakh surgeon Tsering Norboo, Anup Shah, tea seller Devarapalli Prakash Rao, social worker Droupadi Ghimiray, Dogri poet Narsingh Dev Jamwal, folk writer Joraversinh Danubhai Jadav and organic farmer Kanwal Singh Chauhan.
107 years old Saalumarada Thimmakka, stole everyone’s hearts when she gave blessings to the first citizen, honourable President of India Ramnath Kovind at the dias while accepting her ‘Padma Shri’ award. Thimmakka, who has earned the sobriquet of ‘Vriksha Mathe’ or ‘mother of trees’ for planting 8,000 trees including over 400 banyan trees in Karnataka, was honoured with ‘Padma Shri’.
About 50,000 nominations were submitted for the awards this year, which saw a steep rise from 2,200 nominations in 2014.
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