Renowned Hindi journalist and writer H.Y. Narayan Dutt passed away at a hospital here today following a heart ailment and related complications, his family said.

Dutt (85), also a scholar, was the younger brother of late H.Y. Sharada Prasad, who was the media adviser to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi during their Prime Ministership.

“He underwent an open heart surgery and developed some complications and passed away at a hospital in Bangalore this morning,” his brother H.Y. Mohanram said.

The illustrious journalistic career of Dutt spanned over five decades during which he started and headed PTI’s Hindi Feature Service after joining the organisation in 1981 and served till his retirement in 1993.

Dutt also worked with the Indian Express group of publications in Mumbai serving in its film journal “Screen” in Hindi and also as Editor of “Navneet”, a Hindi monthly magazine.

He had also compiled the edited letters of veteran journalist and writer Sri Banarasi Das Chaturvedi.

Dutt was one of the journalists honoured by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his contributions, among Hindi journalists whose mother tongue was not Hindi, Mohanram said. Dutt was born into a Kannada speaking family.

In 1992, he was felicitated for his outstanding work in the field of Hindi journalism by the Uttar Pradesh Sansthan with the Sauhard Samman. The following year, Kendriya Hindi Sansthan honoured him with Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Samman. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary D.Litt by Makhanlal Chaturvedi University of Journalism.

Dutt also encouraged propagating science and technology in a “correct perspective”, Mohanram said.

Dutt was not married.

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