Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai announced the Karnataka Ratna, the highest civilian honour of Karnataka on Tuesday 16 November. The chief minister made the announcement in an event called Puneethe Namana paying tribute to late actor Puneeth Rajkumar. The event was organized by KFCC, Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with Sandalwood film actors' and technicians' associations. The Karnataka Ratna Award is awarded a gold medal weighing 50 gm along with a citation, a memento and a shawl.
The Puneethe Namana event on Tuesday was attended by people from different fields, former Chief Ministers of the state BS Yediyurappa and Siddaramaiah, state Congress chief D K Shivakumar, cabinet colleagues of CM Bommai, personalities from the film fraternity of Kannada and South Indian film industry and a host of political leaders.
Late actor Puneeth Rajkumar has been selected as the 10th recipient of the Karnataka Ratna Award Posthumously after a long discussion with different people and following their suggestions to honour the Kannada film star Puneeth with the award. Political leaders and people from the film fraternity and other reputed personalities demanded Padma Shri Award posthumously to late actor Puneeth after his death on 29 October. It is interesting that Puneeth's late father Rajkumar is the first person to be honoured with Karnataka Ratna Award in the year 1992.
Apart from Puneeth other recipients of the Karnataka Ratna are Dr Devi Prasad Shetty in the field of Medical, Dr J Javaregowda in Education & Literature, Nijalingappa (Politics), Bhimsen Joshi (Music), CNR Rao (Science) and Shivakumara Swamiji for Social Service. The Karnataka Ratna was lastly awarded to Dr Virendra Heggade in 2009 for social service.
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