Satyajit Ray`s "Charulata" Madhabi Mukherjee and Former Indian soccer captain Bhaichung Bhutia were among the 33 people to be conferred West Bengal`s highest civilian awards to mark the third anniversary of the Trinamool Congress government.
West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee and West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan honoured 13 eminent people with "Bangabibhusan" and 20 others with "Bangabhusan" for their outstanding contribution in respective fields.
Among the "Bangabibhusan" recipients were 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 were 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 were 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.
