KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has decorated various personalities, contributing to different sectors of the nation, with honors, decorations, and medals at an investiture ceremony organized at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Sheetal Niwas, Friday.

Those decorated with the Mahaujjwal Rashtradeep First Class include Madan Mani Dixit (posthumously) and former Minister Rabindra Prasad Adhikari (posthumously).

Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR, physician Dr Divya Singh Shah and senior opthalmologist Dr Sanduk Ruit have been decorated with the Suprasidhha Prabala Janasewa Shree (First Class).

Likewise, Supreme Court Justice Deepak Kumar Karki, former Chief Commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Nabin Kumar Ghimire and Chief of the Army Staff, Purna Chandra Thapa, among others, have been conferred with the Prasiddha Prabala Janasewashree (Second Class).

The decorations are conferred on different personalities in accordance with Article 277 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal and on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers. The list of individuals and institutions receiving the decorations, medals and honors is kept in the Home Ministry’s website.

The Decorations Committee had last year recommended the names of 633 persons for decorations, including two persons for the Mahaujjwal Rashtradeep (First Class), seven persons for the Suprasiddha Janasewashree First Class, one person for the Ujjwal Kirtimaya Rashtradeep Second Class, one person for the Prasiddha Janasewashree Second Class, nine persons for the Sukritimaya Rashtradeep Third Class, 112 persons for the Suprabala Janasewashree Third Class, eight persons for the Kirtimaya Rashtradeep Fourth Class, 200 persons for the Prabala Janasewashree Fourth Class and 110 persons for the Janasewashree First, towards the Honors.

Likewise, the Committee had recommended 155 persons for the decorations and 28 individuals for medals. The 450 individuals who were conferred with the decorations on the occasion of the Constitution Day and the National Day, 2076 BS as per the decision of the Council of Ministers on September 17, 2019 were also decorated today. They could not be decorated last year as the investiture function could not be organised due to the risk of COVID-19 pandemic.

Those persons remaining to be decorated today would be conferred with the decorations at the investiture ceremony to be organized on April 14.

The recommendation for the decoration was made by a meeting of the Decorations Committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokhrel. Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and the designated experts are the members and Home Secretary Maheshwor Neupane is the member-secretary of the committee constituted as per the Clause 4 of the Decorations Act, 2007.

The other members on the Committee include Prof Dr Meena Baidya, Prof Dr Indrajeet Rai, senior artist Harihar Sharma, engineer Kashendra Prasad Yadav and Major General Binod Kumar Shrestha.