President Pranab Mukherjee will give the first Sunil Gangopadhyay Memorial Award for excellence in Bengali literature to poets Nirendranth Chakravarty and Sankha Ghosh.
Chakravarty and Ghosh would be felicitated with the Award, constituted in the memory of the eminent litterateur who passed away last year, for the years 2012 and 2013 respectively, the organisers said.
The function would be held at Raj Bhawan on January 11, where Governor M K Narayanan would also be present.
The award, which carries a citation and a cash component of Rs two lakh, is for rewarding outstanding work and contribution to Bengali literature was sponsored by Shree Cement Limited.
The award was instituted by The Bengal, a Kolkata-based non-governmental organisation, following the demise of its immediate past president Sunil Gangopadhyay.
Ace film director Goutam Ghose, board member of The Bengal, would recite a poem of the late litterateur at the award function, Sundeep Bhutoria, secretary general of the NGO said.
