The awardees also received cash prizes of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 Kathmandu, July 13 The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation honoured writers contributing to Nepali literature by presenting them with various national and province-level awards at an award distribution programme today. Culture Minister Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai conferred the awards to litterateurs and personalities. The awards included Pushpalal National Award 2018, Mahakabi Devkota National Award 2018, Bhagat Sarbajeet Manav Maryada National Award 2018 and Gopal Prasad Rimal National Award 2018. Addressing the award distribution programme, Minister Bhattarai said various literati were awarded in recognition of their contribution. He said Nepali literature was a fountain of creativity due to the legacy established by the sages, reflection of the country’s natural beauty in it and its drawings from the ideals of Lord Buddha and several other learned persons. The minister also said a national museum with a mix of culture, tradition, language and literature of all castes and ethnicities would be set up at Kirtipur of Kathmandu. He added that a memorial dedicated to various national personalities, from the unifier of Nepal to other leaders who played crucial roles in several democratic movements of the country, litterateurs and artists would be set up. Buddhi Narayan Shrestha was conferred with the National Talent Award in the culture genre. Likewise under the Province Talent Award, the awardees were Chandra Kumar Rai from Province 1, Dr Ram Sagar Pandit from Province 2, Dr Gautim Bir Bajracharya from Bagmati Province, Prof Gyan Bahadur Karki from Gandaki Province, Bikram Mani Tripathi from Province 5, Basudev Upadhayay from Karnali and Surat Bahadur Shah of Dhangadi from Sudurpaschim provinces. In the language and literature genre, Dayaram Shrestha was conferred with the National Talent Award while Shyam Lal Shrestha received the award under Fine Arts category. Similarly, Satya Narayan Chaudhary of Siraha received National Talent Award under music and drama category. Mahakabi Devkota Award was conferred on Mohan Sitaula of Terhathum, Keshav Subedi of Dang, Padmawati Singh of Kathmandu, Madhusudan Giri of Dailekh and Bhairab Risal of Bhaktapur. Gopal Prasad Rimal National Award-2018 was provided to Abhi Subedi of Terhathum and Ghanshyam Upadhyay Kandel of Dhading. Snehalata Guruwacharya Ban Shrestha of Lalitpur, Madhav Raj Panti of Kapilvastu and National Innovation Centre of Kathmandu were awarded with Pushpalal National Award-2018. Similarly, Society Improvement Campaign under Bhagat Sarbajeet Manab Maryada National Award-2018 was conferred on Nabaraj BK of Jajarkot (posthumously), while Tribhuvan Chandra Wagle of Tanahun and Tilak Pariyar of Banke were honoured with Human Rights Award and Skill, Art, Literature, and Research Award respectively. All the awards under national and institutional category carry a purse of Rs 100,000 while the award under the provincial level carries a purse of Rs 50,000, according to the ministry. A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 14, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.