MARGAO: The Konkani Bhasha Mandal has announced its annual awards for 2026, with the honours set to be presented during the organisation’s 64th Foundation Day celebrations on October 2 at 4 pm at Gomant Vidya Niketan, Margao.
The Seva Puraskar will be presented to Fr Michael Fernandes, Fr Lino Florindo, Suranga Madkaikar, Hiru Naik and Suresh Kolvenkar.
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The Felicio Cardozo Memorial Teacher Award will be conferred on Swati Naik, while the Madhavi Sardesai Teacher Award, sponsored by Vijay Sardesai, will go to Sucheta Pai.
The Ligorio Furtado Trust Memorial Journalism Award will be presented to Atul Pandit, while the Dinesh Manerkar-sponsored Column Writing Award will be given to Chankant Keni.
The Vinaychadrus-sponsored Juze Piedade Memorial Karyakarta Puraskar will be awarded to Ulhas Gaonkar, Rupesh Thanekar and Suchita Narvekar.
The Fr Moreno D’Souza Memorial Yuva Sahitya Puraskar will be presented to Shraddha Gawad and Vikram Verlekar, while Gautami Raikar will receive the Yuva Udyojika Puraskar.
The Bal Sahitya Puraskar will go to Shrikant Nagvenkar for his book Navlanchyo Vigyan Katha. The Rock Barreto Sahitya Puraskar will be presented to Rupa Rajesh Keni for Vijamit Ani Her Katha.
The Shridhar Kamat Sahitya Puraskar will be awarded to Fr Roman Rodrigues for his Konkani script D’jage. Sheetal Nandkumar Parab will receive the Konkani Bhasha Mandal-sponsored Ramesh Veluskar Sahitya Puraskar for her poetry collection Govan Kadyo Kavita.
The Dinesh Manerkar-sponsored Ramnath Manerkar Translation Award will not be presented this year, as the jury found no book meeting the required criteria.
The awards were announced at a press conference organised by the Konkani Bhasha Mandal. The juries for the various award categories comprised writers, academics, journalists and other members associated with Konkani language and literature.
