The awards, announced by Ranjit Deshmukh, President of the Arvind Babu Deshmukh Smriti Pratisthan at a press conference here today, would be distributed at a function at Dr Vasantrao Deshpande Hall later.

Express and Loksatta staffers bagged five awards in different categories. They are Yavatmal correspondent T O Abraham for developmental reporting in English (urban area), Gondia correspondent Diwakar Pathak for investigative journalism in English (rural area), Loksatta's Dhamangaon Gadhi (Amravati district) correspondent Ravi Khadse for investigative journalism in Marathi (rural area) and Pavni (Bhandara district) correspondent of the Loksatta Mahendra Goswami in the `personality profile' category writing in Marathi(urban area).

Ajay Mardikar of the Hitavada won the investigative journalism award (English-Urban area category), while Manish Soni from Nav Bharat won the award in the same category for Hindi. Mahesh Upadev from Saamna won the award in Marathi.

Prakash Kathle of Janwad (Wardha) won the developmental report (urban area) award while Jabbar Chini, Wani correspondent of Nav Bharat, won the rural investigative award in Hindi.

Consolation prizes have also been given to Janvad correspondent from Bhandara, Ramesh Supare, Saamna's correspondent from Warora, Anil Patil, Lokmat Samachar's correspondent from Saoner, Kamal Bhardwaj, and Suresh Charde of Saamna in the city.

Special mementos, certificates of merit and cash prizes would be presented to the winners at the prize distribution function, said Ranjit Deshmukh. A total of 143 entries had been received for the contest. A 10-member team of judges had been appointed by the Pratisthan to selectthe winners, informed Deshmukh. S M Joshi, Ashish Deshmukh, Anil Mahatme, Jawahar Charde and K P Beedkar were also present at the press conference.