On the occasion of Independence Day, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann conferred state awards to 26 eminent personalities for their outstanding contribution in various fields. He also bestowed the Chief Minister's Rakshak Padak on four police officers/officials and the Chief Minister's Medal for Outstanding Duty to 15 police personnel, a release said.

These state awardees included social activists, artistes, litterateurs, poets, environmentalists, government officials and others, who have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields in the larger public interest.

The Chief Minister conferred Certificate and award, during a state level function to mark Independence Day here today, to Dr Anupama Gupta (Amritsar), Master Tegbir Singh (Roopnagar), Sarupinder Singh (Patiala), Ratan Lal Soni (Hoshiarpur), Dr Hitender Suri (Fatehgarh Sahib), Gulshan Bhatia (Amritsar), Rifat Wahab (Malerkotla), Rama Munjal (Ludhiana), Baldev Kumar (Hoshiarpur), Apeksha (Bathinda), Gulzar Singh Patialvi (Patiala), Baldev Singh (Patiala), Balraj Singh (Hoshiarpur), Paramjit Singh Bakhshi (Jalandhar), Yuvraj Singh Chauhan (Ludhiana), Krishan Kumar Paswan (Bathinda), Advocate Rajiv Madan (Amritsar), Jaskaran Singh (Bathinda), Dr Pawan Kumar (Hoshiarpur), Dr Harbhans Kaur (Hoshiarpur), Dr. Raj Kumar (Hoshiarpur), Dr Mahima Minhas (Hoshiarpur), Nisha Rani (Hoshiarpur), Dr PS Brar (Kotakpura), Dr Ravi Bansal (Kotakpura) and Dr Abhinav Shoor (Jalandhar).