The Times Of India
TNN | Mar 23, 2017, 01.46 PM IST
PATNA, Bihar
CM Nitish Kumar will be conferred with prestigious 'Anuvrat Award' by the Shwetambar Terapanthi Sabha, a religious sect of Jainism, for enforcing total liquor ban in the state and spreading the message of de-addiction across the country.
Two years back, former deputy prime minister L K Advani was conferred with the award for promoting moral values in the society. Other prominent recipients of the award are former PM Guljarilal Nanda, former president Shankar Dayal Sharma, former Vice-President Bhairo Singh Sekhawat, former chief election commissioner T N Seshan and Justice (retd) G S Singhvi of Supreme Court, who upheld gay sex as criminal offence.
"Nitish has been chosen for the award by the Anuvrat Mahasamiti, a central body of the Anuvrat movement launched by prominent Jain Muni Acharya Tulsi, for doing a very important social work like liquor ban in Bihar," Tansukh Lal Baid, a prominent functionary of the Shwetambar Terapanthi Sabha, told TOI on Wednesday.
"The award, which consists of Rs1.51 lakh, a shawl, a certificate and a memento, will be handed over to Bihar CM by Acharya Mahashraman, the topmost saint of Terapanth sect, at a function in Patna on March 28," Baid said. The award is given annually to a person or organization for promoting human unity, moral values and non-violence in the society and to establish the principles of Anuvrat, he said.
Acharya Mahashraman will reach Patna on March 27 after travelling over 15,000km on foot in India, Bhutan and Nepal as part of his 'Ahimsa Yatra' that began from the Red Fort in Delhi on November 9, 2014. Acharya Mahashraman will stay in the state capital till March 30 and attend a series of religious programmes being organized by the members of Terapanth sect.
Earlier, in April 2016, Nitish was conferred with 'K Veeramani Award for Social Justice' by US-based Periyar International for promoting the cause of social justice in the country.