This year's Naren Biswas Padak has been conferred to renowned elocutionist Jayanta Chattopadhyay on November 16 for his immense contribution to recitation and acting. The award giving ceremony was held at Music and Dance Auditorium of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Segunbagicha in the city. Mustafa Monwar, country's renowned fine artist, attended the award giving ceremony as the chief guest. Other special guests of the programme were--- noted litterateur Selina Hossain and director general of Bangla Academy Habibullah Sirazi.

The award was given on behalf of the popular recital organisation 'Kanthasilan'. Some of the country's noted elocutionists recited poems at the programme. There were also poetry recitation performances, written by Naren Biswas, by the artistes of 'Kanthasilan'.

Born on July 2 in 1944, Jayanta Chattopadhyay is a renowned actor, elocutionist and freedom fighter of the country. He studied in English literature from Calcutta University. He starred in some projects of noted filmmaker Tareque Masud. The list includes 'Adam Surat', 'Matir Moina', 'Antarjatra' and 'Runway'.

'Kanthasilan' has been conferring the Naren Biswas Padak since 1999 commemorating the late linguist, elocutionist, poet, playwright, lyricist and critic Professor Naren Biswas, who died on November 16 in 1998.

Previous awardees are- Nazim Mahmud (posthumously), Golam Mustafa, Nikhil Sen, Ashraful Alam, Sanjida Khatun, Shamsur Rahman, Niranjan Adhikari, Vashwar Bandhopadhyay, Khan Sarowar Murshid, Syed Hasan Imam, Asaduzzaman Noor, Khaled Khan, Nasir Uddin Yousuf, Ferdousi Majumder, Aly Zaker and Biplob Bala.