Art and Culture awards announced, after four-year gap

Madurai: After a gap of four years, Art and Culture awards for artists of Madurai district have been announced. A district level selection meeting was held in the collector's office consisting of jury members deputy director of art and culture R Gunasekarn, tourism officer K Dharmaraj, district public relation officer Senthil Anna, chief education officer Angelo Irudhayaraj and noted artists from the district N Sulaiman, Kalaimamani Sulochana, Kalaisudar Mani and Murugesan.
For 2012-13, artist A Replin for Kalai Ilamani, dancer T Govindaraj for Kalai Valarmani, Karagattam dancer S Malaisamy for Kalai Sudarmani, Silambam artist A Subahan for Kalai Nanmani and flute player G Baskaran for Kalai Mudhumani categories were selected.
For 2013-14, Silambam artist N Sangeetha for Kalai Ilamani, Oyilattam dancer N Sethuraman for Kalai Valarmani, Tappattam artist S Nallathambi for Kalai Sudarmani, Tanjore painting artist K Thulasi for Kalai Nanmani and miruthangam player K Rengarajan for Kalai Mudhumani categories were selected.
For 2014-15, drummer R Deepak Ramji for Kalai Ilamani, Silambam artist A Veeramani for Kalai Valarmani, artist S Ravi for Kalai Sudarmani, Bharatanatyam dancer Prema Karunanidhi for Kalai Nanmani and drama artist R Kalyanasundaram for Kalai Mudhumani were selected.
For 2015-16, artist S Rajendra Rao for Kalai Ilamani, drama artist R Jayakumar for Kalai Valarmani, Bharatanatyam dancer Shylaja Mahadevan for Kalaisudar Mani, Rajarani attam dancer R Vijaya for Kalai Nanmani and Silambam artist Shek Usman for Kalai Mudhumani were selected.
Madura collector K Veera Raghava Rao announced that the selected artists will be given the certificate and cash award shortly. The folklore artists have been pointing out that the awards for artists were pending for the last four years and they were made to run from pillar to post to get due recognition.