Bhubaneswar: The BJP Government has renamed State’s Sports Award by removing former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik’s name from the Award and named it as Odisha Rajya Krida Samman.
The State Sports and Youth Services Department has issued fresh guidelines for the Award.
The Rajya Krida Samman will be awarded in the eight categories subject to availability of suitable candidates.
Samman for Life-time Achievement for promotion of Sports and Games, which will carry a cash award of Rs 3 lakh while Rs 2 lakh cash award will be given for Samman for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games for the year and Rs 1 lakh for Samman for Excellence in Coaching.
Similarly, Samman for Best Contribution for Promotion of sports and games and Samman for excellence in Sports Journalism will carry a cash award of Rs. 1 lakh each.
Samman for Para-Sports person of the year, Samman for Upcoming Athlete of the Year (Junior Category) and Samman for Sports Technical Official(s)/Support Staff of the year would also carry cash awards of Rs 1 lakh each, the notification said.
The recipients will be honoured with the cash award along with other deliverables as approved by the Government.
As per the guidelines, He/she should be a resident of the State of Odisha and not convicted of any criminal offence. The Samman will be conferred on a person only once in lifetime of the person concerned, pertaining to the concerned category. The Award can be given posthumously to the next kin of the selected person.
Principal Secretary/ Secretary, Sports and Youth Services Department will constitute a 5-member scrutiny committee for scrutiny committee comprising of senior officials and coaches of the Department with Director-cum-Additional Secretary, Sports and Youth Services Department or the senior most officer of the Department as head of the Committee to scrutinize all the applications and placing the scrutiny result before the selection committee for consideration
The Selection Committee led by Sports Secretary will examine the scrutinized nominations/ applications and recommend names for each award for approval of Government at the level of Hon’ble Minister, Sports & Youth Services
The Awards will be presented in a special ceremony on National Sports Day i.e., 29th August every year.
In the event of any person being selected or awarded with the Odisha Rajya Krida Samman under any category, found to have sheltered to fraudulent means, the Samman will be cancelled to that effect and such person shall be liable to refund the Samman amount with a simple interest of 5% per annum, failing which, the same shall be recovered following due procedure.
This is the first Award/ scheme, where the BJP Government has removed the name of Biju Patnaik, the icon of Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD).