Shri Shivamurty Muruga Sharana said the Basavashri award for 2017 will be presented to shepherd and nature lover Kamegouda of Dasandoddi village in Malavalli taluk of Mandya district.

The award honours people for services to society in their fields by following the principles of Lord Basaveshwar. It is presented by the Bruhanmutt Chitradurga. It includes a ₹5 lakh cash prize and a memento and is being presented from 1997.

So far the award has been presented to personalities like Siddarama Sharanaru Beldal (1997) of Bidar for being a Basava culture propagator, Hire Malluru Eshwarana (1998) for his contribution to Vachana revolution, Sudarshan (1999) of B.R. Hills for giving new dimension to Soligas, Anna Hazare (2000) for his fight against corruption, environmentalist Medha Patkar (2001), Peace Messenger from Buddha’s Land Dharma Guru Dalai Lama (2002), poet Gaddar (2003) of Andhra Pradesh, and Vandana Shiva (2004).

Agriculturist Subhas Palekar (2005), social worker Shabana Azmi (2006), Swami Agnivesh (2007) for his efforts to bring communal harmony, First Woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi (2008), athlete P.T. Usha (2009), A.T. Ariya Ratne (2010) were recipients. The award was posthumously presented to M.D. Nanjunda Swamy, founder, Karnataka State Farmers’ Association in 2011. Police officer Shankar Bidari (2012), Infosys founder Narayanmurthy and his wife Sudha Murthy (2013), Nobel prize winner and female education activist Malala Yousafzai (2014), litterateur M.M. Kalburgi (2016) and journalist P. Sainath (2016) have also got it.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Staff Reporter / April 10th, 2018