Governor V.S. Kokje gave away the bravery awards to 10 people chosen for the awards from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal in a ceremony held in Shimla today evening.

Thakur Singh, who was given a silver medal, had single-handedly saved five schoolchildren of Hoshiarpur from drowning when the children were on a school picnic to Chamunda temple.

Hem Raj Chadda of Hamirpur is associated with Sarvahit Sudhar Sabha in Hamirpur, which provides medical aid to the poor, widows, handicapped and blind. His organisation provides blankets, rugs, pillows and bed sheets to hospital patients during the night time and collects them in the morning for redistribution to patients the next day.

In the category of physical bravery, Sukhbir Singh of Hisar (27) was given the gold medal posthumously for chasing armed dacoits from his neighborhood in July, 2007. Sukhbir succumbed to a gun shot fired by the dacoits.

Mamchand of Kurukshetra was given a bronze medal for rescuing an old woman from a 90-feet-deep ditch, in which she fell after an accident.

In the social category, Lt Colonel Bishan Das of Patiala was given the gold medal for his contribution as an environmentalist, while 32-year-old Meera Thakur earned a silver medal in the social category for running a special handicraft training centre in Chandigarh for poor women. A bronze medal was given to Manju Kaushik of Mahendragarh (Haryana) for social work in the field of social empowerment and fight against female foeticide. A special award for social acts was given to Vinod Paul of Kurukshetra, who saved five children from the fire in a gas cylinder leak.

The Mind of Steel Award — a special category introduced this year — was given to 24—year-old Charanjit Kaur of Patiala, who, despite a polio-affected leg, won a gold medal in World Badminton Championship held in Thailand last year for the physically challenged.