West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday (May 9) received a newly-instituted state award for her "relentless literary pursuit".

The award, introduced this year by Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi, was presented to Banerjee for her book "Kabita Bitan", which pays tribute to the best writers of West Bengal.

CM Mamata Banerjee was given the award at the "Ravi Pranam" function organised by the state government on the occasion of the 161st birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

Banerjee was named the first recipient of the new award by education minister Bratya Basu, who is also president of the Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi.

Basu claimed that the chief minister received will be given away once in three years to people from the non-literary world who have made significant contribution to literary field.

Basu added that a panel of senior writers selected the chief minister as the first recipient for Kobita Bitan, a collection of her poems.

Mamata Banerjee's 'Kabita Bitan' was launched at the 2020 Kolkata Book Fair. The book contains 946 poems written by the TMC supremo.

Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi, which is the official regulatory body of the Bengali language, is controlled by the Department of Culture and Information Affairs of the West Bengal Government.

Rabindra Puraskar, the highest honorary literary award of the state, also comes under the aegis of the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy.

CM Mamata Banerjee counts herself as a self-taught painter, poet and writer. She is said to have authored more than 100 books.

"Around 300 paintings of my painting were sold in exhibitions and Rs 9 crore was fetched in total, each of them costing Rs 3 lakh." the CM once proudly claimed.

A couple of her paintings that she produced last year during a 3.5-hour-long dharna at Kolkata's Gandhi Murti to protest against the campaigning ban imposed on her by the Election Commission of India earned praise from TMC loyalists.

In a related development, Ratna Rashid Bandopadhyay, a Bengal-based writer , returned a prestigious award to the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy protesting against the cultural institution’s decision to honour CM amata Banerjee with a new award n Monday.