Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy called on eminent litterateur and bilingual writer in English and Odia Manoj Das, who won the Padma Bushan award, at the latter's residence here on Tuesday and felicitated him for winning the award.
Manoj Das was awarded for his contribution to literature and education.
Education Minister R Kamalakannan and the Chief Minister's Parliamentary secretary K Lakshminarayanan accompanied Narayanasamy and felicitated Das.
Earlier, terracotta artist V K Munusamy, who won the Padma Shree in the field of art, was also felicitated by the Chief Minister at his office.
Manoj Das and Munuswamy were honoured by Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi at the tea party the former IPS officer hosted on the occasion of Republic Day at Raj Nivas on January 26.
At the party, the Chief Minister got irked by Bedi's move of having a programme to honour the Padma award winners without prior information to him and his cabinet colleagues and left the venue in a huff.