Lko journos honoured with PD Tandon award for excellence

Several city-based journalists from leading media houses were recognised with the PD Tandon award for outstanding journalism on Sunday at the fourth annual award function of the PD Tandon Foundation Trust.

The event, held at Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, also acknowledged student journalists and young writers for their contributions.

Hindustan Times reporters Animesh Mishra and Aakash Ghosh jointly received the PD Tandon Award for their investigative report, “Want to get high? Everyone knows where, but cops turn a blind eye,” which exposed the easy availability of drugs in the city and alleged police inaction.

Other awardees in the same category included Mohita Tewari, Ranvijay Singh, Rajeev Bajpai, and Vikas Mishra from other media organisations.

The Trust also hosted a student journalist contest, where Khushi Sharma from the journalism department, National PG College, secured the top position. Kiranpreet Kaur of Modern Girls’ College and Sidrah Rehan from Lucknow University won the second and third prizes, respectively.

A panel of senior journalists, including Sunita Aron, Ruchi Kumar, Govind Pant Raju, and Sharat Pradhan, selected the winners based on nominations. The readers’ choice panel featured theatre and film artist Anil Rastogi, Colvin Taluqedar College principal Sachchidanand Singh, and Prashant Trivedi, assistant professor at Giri Institute.

In the Hindi story-writing competition, Abhay Verma bagged the first prize, followed by Kartik Sangal and Aariz Abbas. Former All India Radio programme, Lucknow, head, Meenu Khare judged the competition, and the winning story was narrated by Ananya Srivastav. .

As part of its social initiatives, the Trust provided vocational training equipment for a year to four specially abled children from Drishti Samajik Sansthan, Lucknow.

The PD Tandon Foundation Trust was established in memory of freedom fighter, author, and former U.P. education minister PD Tandon. The Trust was founded by his children, the late veteran journalist RK Tandon and educator Chitra Malik.