Mamata's award extended to industrialist for the first time

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's brainchild "Banga Bhushan and Banga Bibhushan" set of awards, which hitherto had been given mostly to the stateRs s top actors, singers and a clutch of celebrities, would be widened to include an industrialist as well.

Chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka group, Sanjiv Goenka will be the first representative from the industrialists community, to be awarded the Banga Bibhushan tomorrow. So far, personalities from art and culture have been recipients of the award. Observers feel that it is in sync with Mamata's endeavour to get industry on board despite the constraints on the policy front.

Besides being one of the most prominent city industrialist, Goenka also belongs to the Marwari community - which had a run-ins with the Mamata Banerjee-government post the arrest of seven AMRI directors not in charge of day-to-day affairs of AMRI hospital, that caught fire in December 2011, claiming 90 lives.

After the incident, many among Kolkata's Marwaris, who dominate industry and commerce landscape in Bengal, had expressed concerns. Over the past year, however, there had been effort from state government's side to rebuild the bridges with the Marwari business community. Conferring award on Sanjiv Goenka may give the efforts a more concrete shape.

The overriding factor however is that someone from the business community is going to bag the Banga Bibhushan.

Instituted by the state government in 2012, the last three editions of the awards saw a clutch of stars, mostly with affiliations to the Trinamool Congress, bag the awards.

Alongside Goenka, former TMC MP and singer Kabir Suman who rebelled against the party leadership is also expected to be awarded with Banga Bibhushan tomorrow. TMC MP and Tollywood actor Dev, on the other hand, is expected to bag Banga Bhushan along with a host of city-based celebrities. Although names are yet to be officially disclosed, officials said, as many as 39 dignitaries would be conferred with either of the two awards this year compared to 33 recipients last year.