Imphal: Two people from Manipur, including the state’s veteran politician and former Union Minister Thounaojam Chaoba Singh, will be awarded the Padma Shri, India’s third-highest civilian award.
The other awardee is renowned Thang-Ta coach K Sanathoiba Sharma, according to a statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs, on Wednesday.
Th Chaoba Singh and Guru Sanathoiba Sharma will receive the awards in public affairs and sports categories, respectively.
Choaba, who is 86 years old and from Utlou in Bishnupur district, began his political career in 1972.He was Deputy Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly from 1974-1975. He became deputy chief minister of Manipur from 1994 to 1995.
He was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996 from Inner Manipur from the Indian National Congress. He was appointed president of the state Congress in 1997.
He was re-elected from this seat to both the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998 and the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999, but from the regional Manipur State Congress party.
Later, Chaoba joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and became its state unit president in 2012, holding that position until 2016.
Surprisingly, he is the father of Th Basanta Singh, the current Education Minister in Manipur’s Biren Singh-led BJP government.
Padma Awards – one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.
These Awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year.
For the year 2023, the President has approved conferment of 106 Padma Awards including 3 duo cases (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one) as per list below. The list comprises 6 Padma Vibhushan, 9 Padma Bhushan and 91 Padma Shri Awards. 19 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 2 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 7 Posthumous awardees.
