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Hinting at a policy change, the government is contemplating authorising athletes to directly send in their applications to the sports ministry for the national sports awards, without having to go through the usual process of obtaining certificates from their employers (sports promotion boards), state governments/union territories (UTs) and the sports federations (NSFs), or getting an endorsement/recommendation of their achievements from eligible members, including past awardees and renowned sportspersons.
This is a welcome move by the sports ministry. On several occasions, sportspersons have complained that their names were overlooked by their respective federations because of their disagreements with officials on unrelated issues. Many preferred silence to avoid such a situation. Self-nomination means empowering sportspersons in this regard by eliminating one potential source of patronage from the hands of the federations.
The government had, this year, allowed athletes to self-nominate in view of the difficulties being faced by them in finding eligible members to physically recommend their awards application due to the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown. The government wishes to continue with the same in the future.
“This year, because of the covid-19 situation, we allowed self-nomination for the sports awards. Going forward, the self-nomination could be considered as the primary form of nomination for the awards,” sports minister Kiren Rijiju told TOI.
When asked about the growing demand from athletes that the government should itself nominate a sportsperson for awards, the minister said the government is open to the suggestion. “The recommendation by the government is a good suggestion. It can be considered (for future) after consultation with prominent persons in the field of sports,” he stated.
The sportspersons have argued that since the Sports Authority of India (SAI) maintains the performance chart of every individual athlete representing the country, it would be far easier for the SAI to provide the awards selection committee with the achievements list of athletes.
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