Moodabidri: Alva’s Virasat (Heritage) Award for 2011, will be awarded to Pandit Ajoy Chakraborthy, a well-known Bengali Singer of Hindustani music traditions, on Jan 5, by CM D.V. Sadananda Gowda who inaugurates the festival of 4-days (Jan 5-8) on Thursday next, in a function arranged at Shobhavana, Mijar near Moodabidri.

The Virasat award carries a purse of Rs 1 lakh, a citation, and gifts in traditional honour, a press release nformed.

Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade presides over the inaugural function.

Ajoy belongs to Patiala Gharana (Clan). He has already been decorated with a Presidential award in 1990, for the best male playback of the year, which no classical vocalist had secured so long, before him.

He has been invited to Sing in Pakistan by Pak Government in the past. He won a gold medal from Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkatta. He runs a music school there, and has been given ‘Padmashree’ in 2011 by Central Government of India.