The CM was impressed by the rare Quranic and other Islamic Manuscripts that are being displayed at the exhibition. She hailed the effort of Ateeqa Bano for preserving rarest manuscripts and artifacts in Meeras Mahal Sopore.
Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday inaugurated rare Quranic manuscripts exhibition which would be held in the Tagore Hall lawns for three days.
The CM was impressed by the rare Quranic and other Islamic Manuscripts that are being displayed at the exhibition. She hailed the effort of Ateeqa Bano for preserving rarest manuscripts and artifacts in Meeras Mahal Sopore.
Later she gave away the best book awards for different languages. She said the award money for best local language book given by Cultural Academy would be increased from present Rs 51000 to Rs 1 lakh.
Mehbooba, who is also the President of the Cultural Academy, presented the best book award for Dogri to Om Goswami for his book Rang Bakhrey Bakhrey, Sheikh Azad Ahmad Azad got the award for his book Tatloos in Gojri, the Hindi award was bagged by Kavita: Swabhav Sameeksha. The Kashmiri award was presented to Mushtaq Ahmad Mushtaq for his book Aakh. The award for the best book in Ladakhi was given to Khanpo Konchok Phandey for his book Thommiyi Sun-r Tags-La-dpyadpa, the Paharai award was taken by Nisar Rahi for his book Tundh, for Paunjabi the best book award was given to Rajinder Singh Rajan for his book Taja Bawari and for Urdu the best book award was given to Shyam Sunder Anand Lehar for his book Naamdev.
The Best Book Award comprises a cash reward of Rs 51000, a shawl, a citation and memento.
The CM called for preserving and promoting local languages which constitute a part and parcel of the State’s distinct cultural identity and heritage.
“In most of the families today, the parents prefer to teach their children to speak in Hindi, Urdu and English instead of their mother tongue including Kashmiri, Dogri, Bodhi. This trend has to be reversed, sooner the better,” she said.
Minister for Finance and Culture Dr Haseeb Drabu and Minister of State for Education, Tourism and Culture, Priya Sethi also spoke on the occasion.
