Hello Mumbai Maharashtra Desk 

Key Highlights:Five Years of Journalism Awards Pending; Demand Submitted to Chief Minister for Distribution

Karad: The long-pending distribution of Maharashtra’s state journalism awards has sparked fresh concern, with the Press Media Editors and Journalists Association formally urging Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to expedite the process and organise a felicitation ceremony at the earliest.
In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, Association President Gorakh Taware highlighted that although the Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR), Government of Maharashtra, has announced journalism award winners for the period between 2019 and 2023, the actual distribution ceremony has yet to take place.
The Maharashtra Government annually invites entries for its prestigious journalism awards across multiple categories, including excellence in print journalism, feature writing, television news reporting, photojournalism, social media content, and awareness campaigns under the Swachh Maharashtra initiative. Submissions published between January 1 and December 31 each year are scrutinised by a committee comprising senior journalists and government officials, following which the state formally declares the awardees based on the panel’s recommendations.
However, despite the formal announcements, the awards for five consecutive years remain undistributed, creating uncertainty and disappointment among recipients.
The memorandum further states that while proposals were invited for the 2024 awards, the results are still awaited. Simultaneously, the state has issued a fresh call for entries for the 2025 awards, with March 25 set as the deadline. This overlapping process, without closure of previous years’ ceremonies, has raised questions within media circles regarding the delay.
The issue had earlier been reported in various newspapers across Maharashtra. Subsequently, awards for the years 2020 to 2023 were declared. Yet, there has been no official communication regarding the scheduling of the distribution function, the association noted. Several award-winning journalists are reportedly in a state of confusion, with some even expressing resignation over the prolonged delay.
As the Information and Public Relations Department functions under the direct charge of the Chief Minister, Taware has appealed for immediate intervention to restore confidence among members of the media fraternity.
The state-level honours include the prestigious ‘Atal Bihari Vajpayee National Journalism Award’ carrying a cash prize of ₹1 lakh. Separate awards are also conferred for Marathi, English, Hindi and Urdu media. In addition, awards of ₹51,000 each are presented in categories such as television news features, photojournalism, social media reporting, Swachh Maharashtra awareness writing and editorial excellence.
At the divisional level, awards are earmarked for journalists from Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Mumbai, Pune, Konkan, Kolhapur, Amravati and Nagpur divisions.
Calling for immediate action, Taware emphasised that the state government should organise a comprehensive felicitation ceremony to honour award-winning journalists, editors, photographers, freelance contributors and officials of the Information and Public Relations Department, thereby upholding the dignity and morale of the media community in Maharashtra.