Bangalore, Apr 8: The Karnataka Media Akademy announced conferring a special award to 'India Today' Managing Editor Raj Chengappa for his contribution to the field at the national level.

Announcing the Akademy's annual awards for 2006 here yesterday, its Chairman V N Subba Rao told reporters that the special award carried a purse of Rs 15,000, a shawl and a memento. The awards would be presented on May 10.

The other awardees were Mr Eshwar Daitot (Samyukta Karnataka - Bangalore), Mr Gaus Shirahatti (Retired Akashvani Director - Bangalore), Ms Sandhya Pai (Taranga - Manipal), Mr M A Ponnappa (Prajavani - Bangalore), Mr T Venkatesh (E Sanje - Bangalore), Mr Shivanand Joshi (Freelancer - Hubli), Mr C Shanmukhappa (Kannada Prabha - Chitradurga), Mr Ram Managooli (Samyukta Karnataka - Bagalkot), Mr Pramod Melligatti (The Hindu - Shimoga), Mr Kote Nagabhushan (Praja Pragati - Tumkur), Mr Bhavanilaxmi Narayan (Photographer - Chikkaballapur), Mr Shankar Koodla (Jai Bhimagadha - Gulbarga), Mr B S Harish (Times of India, Kannada - Mysore) and Mr H S Hegde (Shachar - Sirsi).

Mr Rao said the Akademy was celebrating its silver jubilee this year and would conduct various programmes to mark the occasion.

UNI