Bhubaneswar: The BJD on Saturday lashed out at the Mohan Majhi-led BJP government for renaming Biju Patnaik Sports Award as ‘Odisha Rajya Krida Samman’.
Speaking to mediapersons at the state BJD headquarters, Nayagarh MLA Arun Sahoo said, “Biju Patnaik was not an individual but an institution. Leaders across party lines respect Biju Babu.”
Sahu urged the state government not to take steps “which will hurt the people of Odisha”.
“Biju Babu was a national asset who was honoured by three different countries. He participated in the freedom struggle of the country. By removing his name from a sports award, what does the state government want to prove?” the senior BJD leader asked, which requesting the government to refrain from such decisions.
The award, first instituted by the Naveen Patnaik government in honour of former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik in 2001-2002, was given every year at a special ceremony on National Sports Day on August 29. The award was initially presented in four different categories – outstanding performance in sports and games, lifetime achievement in the promotion of sports and games, excellence in coaching and excellence in sports journalism. A new category ‘best contribution for the promotion of sports and games’ was added in 2015. During last year’s award ceremony, three more categories were included.
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The latest notification by the Sports and Youth Services mentioned eight categories — outstanding performance in sports and games, lifetime achievement in the promotion of sports and games, excellence in coaching, excellence in sports journalism, best contribution for the promotion of sports and games, para sports person of the year, upcoming athlete of the year (junior category), and sports technical officer/support staff.
Lifetime achievement for promotion of sports and games award will carry a cash award of Rs 3 lakhs, while an athlete with outstanding performance will get Rs 2 lakh. For excellence in coaching, best contribution to the promotion of sports, excellence in sports journalism, technical officials, para-sportsperson and upcoming player of the year, the cash award will be Rs 1 lakh each.
