Punjab govt wakes up to award top players

7 YEARS ON, MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH AWARD TO 67 SPORTSPERSONS CHOSEN FOR 2005-10 PERIOD ON APRIL 29

CHANDIGARH: There is much talk of encouraging sportspersons and annual kabaddi spectacles garnished with Bollywood stars, but here’s a reality check as to where sports stand on the priority list of the Punjab government.

Waking up after six years in power, the SAD- BJP regime said on Saturday that it would give away the 'annual' Maharaja Ranjit Singh Awards (MRSA) — state's highest sports honour — to those chosen from 2005 to 2010 here on April 29.

The neglect has no party lines. Never held in the earlier SADBJP tenure ( 2007-12), the ceremony was last organised by the Congress regime in 2006, when backlog of eight years (1997-2004) was cleared.

The award instituted in 1978 is for a maximum of 15 players a year. The bounty was doubled by the Akali regime to Rs 2 lakh before the 2012 assembly polls, and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, who holds the sports portfolio, had a strange logic as to why the delay was good.

“Now, players will get the increased prize money!” he said, formally announcing the date at a press conference here on Saturday. But even after the April 29 function, there will be a backlog of 2011 and 2012, winners for which are still to be picked.

One of the winners from 2005 commented, "Though it's better late than never, what's the sense of achievement when you get an award eight years after the performance? What if MLAs were declared winners eight years after the election victory?" He underlined that the government "is only bothered about its own publicity, not the least about sports".

WHY THE DELAY

It was only in 2010 that the sports department invited applications for the awards to clear a six-year backlog; a committee chose winners early in 2011. Sitting on the list since, Sukhbir kept trumpeting how he had doubled the cash purse.

For the function to actually take place, maximum publicity was the chief criterion, said sports officials requesting anonymity. The department was directed to ensure availability of both Sukhbir and his father, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal; besides booking a largecapacity venue -- Tagore Theatre in Sector 18 - in capital Chandigarh, which would also "ensure good media coverage".

Even April 29 was fixed after a couple of changes in the past two months, it is learnt.