By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kochi: The Statesman Award for the best rural reporting in the country has been won by MJ Babu of the ‘Madhyamam’ daily in Kerala. Mr Babu is senior reporter in the Thiruvananthapuram bureau of ‘Madhyamam’. This is the second Statesman Award for Babu.
Babu’s series of articles titled ‘Pattanam gramathodu cheyyunnath’ (What the city does to the village) published in the newspaper on 7th, 8th and 9th of April 2009 won him the award. The article-series was about the sorry plight of the people living around the Chakkamkandam Lake where all the waste including human excreta from Guruvayoor Township are dumped.
MJ Babu has got many other awards like the Dr Moorkkannoor Narayanan Award instituted by the Kerala Press Academy, the Oorja Kerala Award and the Farm Journalism Award. He joined ‘Madhyamam’ in 1993.
Babu is the son of MA Jalal and late Abida. His wife PP Nachi is executive engineer in the Public Works Department. His children Ashitha and Asif are students.