Internet Poll Elects Most Popular Agraite Of 2009

Agra, 31 January: It was a glittering awards presentation show Saturday evening at hotel Goverdhan in Agra, where more than 200 artists, intellectuals, hotel industry leaders, professionals and media-persons converged to witness a unique event to publicly felicitate talents from diverse fields. The highlight was the announcement of the result of the internet poll to elect the most popular Agraite of 2009.

Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society president Surendra Sharma announced the names of the awardees: Dr. Lovely Sharma, the only D. Lit in Sitar in India, for music; Dr. Vijay M Dhore, artist of national repute, Prof Sunder Lal, Pro VC, Agra University, for his contribution to cyber security and cryptography, Dr. Ram Avtar Sharma, eminent educationist, for heritage conservation and environmental activism. Lalit Rajora, for wild life and nature photography.

Three Guinness Book record holders Dinesh Shandilya, Dr. Parthsarthy Sharma and Akash Gupta were also honored.

The award for the ‘Most Popular Agraite of 2009’ went to Ashok Jain CA, philanthropist and social activist, who has been a key instrument in supporting free heart operations for more than 100 patients. Jain's crusade for eye donations has also earned him credit.

Explaining the purpose of institution these Heritage Awards, Society president Surendra Sharma said 'away from the superficial dazzle of politicians whose only contribution had been to spread cynicism and frustration, our society needs new role models, new heroes who can inspire and show the correct direction to the youth."

The hype and excitement in the past 25 days of polling through emails and SMS to elect the most popular Agraite, helped assess the IT awareness level and the penetration of internet in the city, Dharmendra Kumar from Mediabharti Web Solutions, who conducted the poll, later told Agratoday.in. "The competition was fierce, it picked up momentum only in the later stages when the activists and the society's movers and shakers realized its importance. More than 26,000 entries were recorded. This was the first time, forgetting the reality shows on TV, that such an exercise has been conducted, as far as I know," he added. The model that we have now developed can be tried to elect a whole lot of people and organizations in different situations by members of a particular community, he said.