It was only 24 hours ago, the Andhra Pradesh government had announced YSR Life Time Achievement Awards to 53 individuals and institutions.
The awards would be presented either on August 14 or 15, according to the convenience of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The awards carry Rs 10 lakh for Life Time Achievement and Rs 5 lakh for Achievement category besides a citation.
The awards were announced for individuals and institutions in the fields of agriculture, social service, arts, writers, journalism and Covid care.
Among others, the awards were announced for 8 persons, three of them posthumously – Pothuri Venkateswara Rao, Devi Priya and K Amarnath.
The other journalists are Palagummi Sainath, A B K Prasad, Surendra, Telakapalli Ravi and Imam.
However, journalist, Palagummi Sainath, had rejected the award on the ground that he never accepted any award or honour from any government.
“A journalist is expected to be critical of government exposing its failures. Accepting the awards or honours from the government would deprive a journalist the chance to be critical,” Sainath said, justifying his decline.
Interestingly, Sainath was one of the members of the Agriculture Mission which helps the state government in formulating policies and programmes for the farmers and the agriculture sector.
Agriculture Mission was one of the first initiatives of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government when it was formed in 2019.