THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Wednesday presented the Kerala Jyothi Award -- the highest civilian honour instituted by the state government -- to writer T Padmanabhan in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a function held at Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. The award was presented to honour his contributions in the field of Malayalam literature. The state government is instituting ‘Kerala Puraskarangal’ - the highest award given to distinguished personalities for their outstanding contributions in various fields.
The governor presented ‘Kerala Prabha’ awards to the late Justice (retired) M Fathima Beevi and Soorya Krishnamurthy for their contributions in the field of social service and arts respectively. ‘Kerala Sree’ awards were presented to Punalur Somarajan for his relentless contribution to social service, Dr V P Gangadharan for his contribution to the health sector, and Ravi D C for his contribution to the industry and commerce sector, K M Chandrasekhar for his contribution in the civil service sector and Pandit Ramesh Narayan for his contribution in the field of art and music.