The Sardar Patel National Unity Award, a new honour on the pattern of Padma awards for promoting national unity, will be bestowed on individuals or institutions for notable contributions towards the cause of the country's unity and integrity, the Home Ministry said on Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the institution of the award
last December at the annual conference of DGPs and IGP held at Kevadiya in Gujarat, where a giant statue of Vallabhbhai Patel is located.
According to a notification issued by the Home Ministry, the decoration will recognise inspiring contributions to promote national unity and integrity and to reinforce the value of a strong and united India.
Any person without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex is eligible for the award and it may be given posthumously in very rare and only in highly deserving cases.
The names of the persons, upon whom the decoration is conferred, will be published in the gazette of India and a register of all such recipients will be maintained under the direction of the President, said the notification.
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The decoration will be worn by men on the left breast, suspended from a plain lotus tri-colour ribbon one and four centimeters in width and by women the same colour and width fashioned into a bow.
The award will be in the shape of a lotus leaf, six centimetres in length, six and two centimetres at its greatest breadth and four millimetres in thickness. It shall be of fine silver and gold.
On its obverse will be embossed a replica of the lotus with petals. The words 'Sardar Patel National Unity Award' will also be written in Hindi.
The portrait of Patel will be embossed upon a circular shaped gold metal with a diameter of two centimeters and on the reverse shall be embossed the state emblem and motto in Hindi. The Emblem, the lotus and the petals shall be of fine silver, plated with gold, and the inscription will be in frosted gold.
The miniature of the decoration which maybe worn on certain occasions by recipients will be half the size of the award and a sealed pattern of the said miniature shall be deposited and kept.
The President may cancel and annul the award of the decoration to any person or organisation or institution and thereupon his name shall be erased from the Register and he shall be required to surrender the decoration and the Sanad.
But it shall be competent for the President to restore the decoration and Sanad and to withdraw the orders of cancellation and annulment.
The notice of cancellation or restoration in every case shall be published in the gazette of India, the notification said.
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