President M Abdul Hamid asked all to come forward to nourish and develop healthy culture to eliminate militancy and fanaticism from society, reports BSS.

“Promote healthy culture . . . You have to use culture as a weapon of eradicating filthiness from society,” he told a function at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) on the occasion of “Shilpakala Padak-2018” distribution on Thursday (Jul 18).

Terming culture a safeguard against social degradation, President Hamid said, “Flourishing of culture is very urgent to remove militancy, fanaticism and animosity from society.”

Lauding different cultural works on the Language Movement, the War of Liberation and Bangabandhu, he said the Shilpakala Academy has taken a very good decision to introduce the award. “I think this initiative will play a vital role to build a humane society,” he added.

The President handed over the prestigious “Shilpakala Padak 2018” in seven categories to seven cultural personalities for their outstanding contributions in respective fields.

The awardees are — Alakesh Ghosh in fine arts, M Hamid in dramatics, Sunil Chandra Das in instrumental music, Shukla Sarkar in dance, Gaur Gopal Haldar in vocal music, Jayanta Chattopadhyay in recitation and Mina Barua in folk culture.

State Minister for Cultural Affairs K M Khalid, MP, BSA Director General Liaquat Ali Lucky and acting secretary to Cultural Affairs Ministry Dr Md Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, among others, also spoke on the occasion.

The President enjoyed a cultural function after the award giving ceremony there.