The state government on Thursday decided to restrict total number of Kannada Rajyotsava awards for the year 2011-12 to 50 persons. But, there will be no change to cash prize of `1 lakh and 20 gram gold medallion that would be given to each awardee.
This was decided at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar here and participated by Deputy Chief Minister R Ashok, Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Kannada and Culture Minister Govind M Karjol and others.
Principal Secretary to Department of Kannada and Culture B Basavaraju who had earlier hinted out the possibility of cutting expenditure on the awards due to prevailing drought in some taluks, said that the committee did not discuss the issue at all. This year, Department of Kannada and Culture received over 2,000 applications for the awards compared to 4,000 applications received last year.
“There will be one more round of meeting shortly where a final list of awardees will be decided. This meeting would be held two days before the Kannada Rajoytsava. The department will also identify persons who have not applied for the award, but are contributing to society in their respective fields,” he said.