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| Sher-i-Kashmir awards ceremony postponed once again | | Awards of disgrace | | Abodh Sharma
Jammu, Jan 22: As if the daily doses of administrative apathy to the sportsmen of the State was not enough, the Sher-i-Kashmir award ceremony scheduled to be held on Monday, the 21st of January has been postponed indefinitely yet again.
The awards which were institutionalized to honour the outstanding sportsmen of the State in a calendar year, is being postponed repeatedly since the year 2000 and after series of deferments on one pretext or the other, the State Sports Council which had scheduled to hold the award ceremony Monday last, postponed it yet again for the umpteenth time to the utter dismay and distress of the sportspersons who had been shortlisted for the honour.
Sources in the Sports Council divulge that the award ceremony could not be held for 10 years on the trot for one reason or the other, but this time everything was put in place. "The citations have been made and even the Chief Minister had agreed to do the honours, but the Cabinet reshuffle and change of guard in the Ministry of Youth Services and Sports has left us with no choice but to postpone the function indefinitely for yet another time," said senior officer in the Council.
The sports persons are a dejected lot. They have become so weary of the repeated deferments that they wish they were never nominated for them. "For many years, When PDP led coalition Government was in power, I thought that the awards were being shelved because the PDP did not want to give away awards instituted after the name of Sher-i-Kashmir, the founder of Opposition National Conference, but four years after Omar Abdullah became Chief Minister, he has not cared to find time to give away awards named after his grandfather and grandmother," said a noted sportsperson. "R.S chib, the former Minister of Sports had a negative attitude towards sportsmen and he deliberately avoided giving away the awards," said another sportsman. "He almost drove a group of national medals winners when they went to call on him" he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that beyond the Sher-e-Kashmir and Madr-e-Meharban awards, sportspersons of the State have been deprived of their legitimate dues as despite announcements by the Chief Ministers, the medal winners of the National Games have not been given their cash incentives for years. |
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