Odisha Honoured With Sportstar Aces Award

Bhubaneswar: In yet another recognition of its achievement in the field of sports, Odisha was honoured with the Sportstar Aces Award as the Decade’s Best State for Promotion of Sports.

Renowned Indian hockey player MM Somaya handed over the award of renowned sports magazine Sportstar for the period from 2011 to 2020 to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at a special function organised here on Sunday.

Dedicating the award to 4.5 crore people of Odisha, especially the youth, the Chief Minister called upon them to shine in every field and move towards a new and empowered Odisha.

Thanking the jury headed by legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar for choosing Odisha as the best state for promoting sports, Naveen said sports has a major role in building a healthy and disciplined society. The youth have to be guided to productively utilise their energy and make them well-rounded personalities. “With this vision, we have been pro-actively supporting sports across the state,” he added.

“We have launched large scale grassroots programmes. In Sundargarh district, which has produced many international hockey players, we are going to construct synthetic hockey turfs in every block of the district,” he informed.

Speaking on the occasion, Somaya said the jury considered the award for Odisha on three key areas. They are ability to harness talent of the sports persons with super infra facilities, high performance centres with partnership of industry and sports persons, and ability to organise international events.

In his welcome address, Ayan Sengupta, senior editor of the Hindu Group said Odisha has ushered in a revolution in sports in the past decade. CEO of Hindu Group LV Naveneeth said the Sportstar will be with Odisha for building a greater sporting future.

Besides Gavaskar, sportspersons Baichung Bhutia, Viswanathan Anand and Aparna Popat sent their video message for the programme.

Among others, Sports Minister Tusharkanti Behera, veteran hockey player Dillip Tirkey, sports principal secretary Vishal Dev, secretary to CM 5T VK Pandian and other senior officers were present.