Rajasthan Hindi academy to honour 200 authors

The Rajasthan Hindi Granth Academy will honour 200 authors at its golden jubilee celebrations on September 14.

Minister of State for Higher Education Bhanwar Singh Bhati on Thursday told reporters that the academy would hold the celebrations on Hindi Day at the Birla auditorium.

This was the first such academy in the country which was going to honour Hindi writers on such a large scale, the minister said, adding that the Pragya Award would be conferred on three authors, whose 15 editions of books had been published.

The authors who will be given the award during the celebrations are Dr Harimohan Saxena, Dr Rita Pratap and Mamta Chaturvedi.

Each of them will be a given a cheque for Rs 51,000.

The minister said the academy was the first such government institution in the country that had sold a record 3.71 crore books in a year.

He said that the academy would also publish monographs on 143 freedom fighters under the "Amar Purodha Series" of the freedom struggle.

Bhati further said the academy had paid Rs 59 lakh in royalty to its authors.

Rajasthan is the first state in the country where the academy pays royalty online to authors with complete transparency, he said, adding that around 1.5 crore books had been sold by the academy so far this year.