Andhra Pradesh revives NTR award

Hyderabad, Jan 18 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh government Wednesday decided to revive an award instituted in memory of late chief minister and film actor N.T. Rama Rao following criticism from various quarters for discontinuing the prize for "want of funds".

The Congress government decided to present the awards for 2003, 2004 and 2005 on Nov 1, the state's formation day.

The decision to revive the award came hours after the late thespian's family and the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) that he founded offered to fund the prize, though they also exchanged allegations on hiss tenth death anniversary.

The award, comprising Rs.500,000 in cash and a citation, is given to prominent film personalities for their contribution to the development of cinema.

Akkineni Nageswara Rao, a famous Telugu actor and contemporary of Rama Rao or "NTR", was the first recipient of the award instituted in 1996. Dilip Kumar (1997), Sivaji Ganeshan (1998), Lata Mangeshkar (1999), Hrishikesh Mukherji (2000), Bhanumati Rama Krishna (2001) and Raj Kumar (2002) were other recipients.

The government also announced an NTR stage award for 2005 to well-known stage artiste and director Duggirala Someswara Rao. He would receive Rs 50,000 in cash, a gold medal and citation.

Earlier, N. Chandrababu Naidu, NTR's son-in-law and president of the TDP, offered to arrange funds for the award. NTR's son and actor Harikrishna also said the family was ready to contribute for the purpose.

Harikrishna joined Naidu in criticising the ruling Congress Party for discontinuing the awards.

"It is shameful that the Congress which is spending millions of rupees for its own meetings has discontinued awards saying it has no money for the purpose," said Naidu, who paid tributes to the leader at his memorial.

NTR's daughter and Congress MP Purandareswari, however, blamed her brother-in-law Naidu for the discontinuation of the award. She said during his long rule Naidu had failed to set up a corpus fund for the award.

Purandareswari, who was accompanied by her husband and Congress MLA Daggubati Venkateswara Rao to the memorial, pointed out that the award was not given even in 2003 and 2004, when Naidu was the chief minister.

NTR, the most renowned Telugu film actor, had come to power in nine months after forming the TDP in 1982 to end the Congress rule in the state. However, he was unseated by Naidu in a revolt in the party in August 1995. Five months later, NTR died of heart attack.