Bengal government awards for Bhaichung, Madhabi

Kolkata, May 19 (IANS) Former Indian soccer captain Bhaichung Bhutia and Satyajit Ray's "Charulata" Madhabi Mukherjee, will be among the 33 people to be conferred West Bengal's highest civilian awards to mark the third anniversary of the Trinamool Congress government.

Disclosing the names in a Facebook post, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said 13 eminent people would be presented "Bangabibhusan" and 20 others "Bangabhusan" Tuesday for their outstanding contribution in respective fields.

Among the "Bangabibhusan" recipients are Lepcha tribal leader Sonam Tshering Lepcha, vocalist Arun Bhaduri, proprietor of "jatra" (folk theatre) group Natta Company Makhanlal Natta, physician Sukumar Mukherjee, film stars Madhabi Mukhopadhyay and Dipankar De, Justice Md Abdul Gani, writer Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, educationist Felix Raj, singers Haimanti Shukla and Mohan Singh, and dancer Alakananda Roy.

Those who will be conferred "Bangabhusan" include Bhutia, former soccer internationals Bidesh Bose, Goutam Sarkar, Shabbir Ali and Shyam Thapa, sarod maestro Tejendranarayan Majumder, social activist Md Abdul Wahab, journalist Bachan Singh Saral and tribal leader Birsa Tirkey.

Other "Bangabhusan" awardees are actors Debashree Roy and Aparajita Adya, singers Srikanta Acharya, Indranil Sen, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Indrani Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, cricketers Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Manoj Tiwary, chess grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly.