Sunday, May 25, 2025 11:15 [IST]
Last Update: Sunday, May 25, 2025 05:44 [IST]
GANGTOK,: Journalist Puran Tamang was on Saturday honoured with the prestigious Ram Patro Memorial Award for ‘Excellence in Journalism for 2024-25’ during the award function held here.
Tamang is the editor of Gangtok-published English daily Summit Times and has served as a journalist in Sikkim for over two decades.
Lok Sabha MP Indra Hang Subba handed away the award to Puran Tamang in presence of Upper Burtuk MLA Kala Rai, Gangtok MLA Delay Namgyal Barfungpa, journalists, guests, dignitaries, and SIKKIM EXPRESS & Himali Bela family.
The annual Ram Patro Memorial Award is constituted by SIKKIM EXPRESS & Himali Bela in memory of its late founder Ram Patro.
Similarly, the Ram Patro Memorial Award for ‘best working journalist in SIKKIM EXPRESS & Himali Bela’ for 2024-25 was presented to Kush Hang Leewang, the Geyzing district correspondent.
The award was presented by Upper Burtuk MLA Kala Rai.
On the occasion, the SIKKIM EXPRESS & Himali Bela felicitated Suman Rai, assistant operator at the printing press, in recognition of his dedicated service to the media house.
In his address, the Lok Sabha MP congratulated the Ram Patro Memorial awardees and lauded their commitment to serve Sikkim through journalism. He appreciated their resilience and persistence despite facing challenges, terming them as valuable assets of the society.
Indra Hang recorded his appreciation to the SIKKIM EXPRESS for sustaining and serving Sikkim as a media house without any interruption for 49 years since it was launched in 1976. He expressed the media, as the fourth pillar of democracy, has a vital role towards the society while also maintaining its credibility and accountability. In today’s era of social media, misinformation and disinformation are global challenges and we feel that media can address this issue with verified news and factual reporting, he observed.
Upper Burtuk MLA Kala Rai and Gangtok MLA Delay Namgyal Barfungpa, in their respective addresses, congratulated the awardees and lauded the initiative taken by SIKKIM EXPRESS & Himali Bela. They shared their experiences and association with the media here in the course of their political journey, and urged the media to always remain the voice of the people.
In his acceptance speech, Puran Tamang expressed his happiness in receiving the Ram Patro Memorial Award, his first award in journalism after working in the media sector for over two decades. He thanked the Ram Patro Memorial Award committee, SIKKIM EXPRESS & Himali Bela family, Summit Times team, media colleagues and his family for supporting and encouraging him during his journalism journey.
Similarly, Kush Hang Leewang thanked SIKKIM EXPRESS & Himali Bela for the prestigious Ram Patro Memorial Award. He expressed gratitude to his media colleagues, senior journalists, and his family for their constant support and guidance while working as the district correspondent from West Sikkim for past 15 years.
Both the awardees spoke about their passion towards journalism and the zeal to continue despite facing challenges of various natures along the way.
In his welcome speech, SIKKIM EXPRESS editor Amit Patro spoke about the Ram Patro Memorial Award journey which started with its first award ceremony in 2005. The annual award recognizes those journalists who are carrying the torch of journalism forward in Sikkim.
“It was our way of remembering and honouring late Ram Patro, the founding editor of SIKKIM EXPRESS. He played a vital role in laying the foundations of professional journalism in Sikkim. We continue to honour his legacy through this annual award,” said Patro.
Also present at the award function were IPR secretary Annapurna Alley, IPR officials, Gangtok PIB officials, Gangtok AIR officials and dignitaries.
