Mamata Banerjee to honour Manna Dey with Vishes Sangeet Mahasamman award

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will confer the state's prestigious ‘Vishes Sangeet Mahasamman' award on eminent playback singer Manna Dey in Bangalore today. The CM would bestow the honour to him at his residence in Bangalore and return to Kolkata tomorrow, state secretariat sources have said. This gesture comes in the wake of the inability of the 94-year old Dey to attend the state-sponsored Sangeet Mela that begins on Kolkata on 6 April because of his illness. Dey currently lives in Bangalore in the township of Kalyannagar after spending more than fifty years in Mumbai. Apart from Dey, 34 other eminent persons in the songs and music would be honoured this year with prestigious awards by the state government. Of them 16 persons would be conferred with the 'sangeet mahasamman' award while the rest would be honoure with the 'sangeet samman' award. Born on 1 May, 1919 as Prabodh Chandra Dey, the melodious singer came to be known as Manna Dey. On 18 December 1953, Dey married Sulochana Kumaran from Kerala. They have two daughters: Shuroma and Sumita. Sulochana died in Bangalore on 18 January, 2012 after suffering from cancer for some time. Dey was honoured with the prestigious Padma Shree award in 1971, Padma Bhusan in 2005 and the Dadasaheb Phalke in 2007.