As many as 21 eminent persons in the field of literature from the Union Territory were honoured with the Tamilmamani and Telugu Ratna awards by Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy and Tourism Minister Malladi Krishna Rao at a function in the Legislative Assembly recently.
A special committee headed by the Minister for Art and Culture selected the awardees for the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Cash prize, citation
As many as 20 were selected for the Tamilmamani awards while one person from Yanam, an enclave of the Union Territory in Andhra Pradesh was selected for the Telugu Ratna award.
The awards comprise a cash prize of ₹75,000 and a citation from the Department of Art and Culture.
The winners of the Tamilmamani are Rasavenkatesan, Aranganadarajan, Krishnasamy, Pattabiraman, Pasupathi, Velmurugan, Ilakkiyan alias Lakshminarayanan, Kalladan, Tamilmallan, Poongudi Parangukusam, Tamiliyakkan, Saayubumaraikar, Arimalam Padmanabhan, Narayanan, Selvarasu, Hussain, Raghavasamy, Pandurangan, Rathina Janarathanan and Manimeghalai Kuppusamy. Vijayalakshmi was bestowed with the Telugu Ratna.