Sports
Sports ministry revamps awards schemes
New Delhi, Feb 23
The sports ministry Monday revised the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya awards schemes.
In
the revised schemes, the selection committee for the Arjuna award will
be headed by a retired Supreme or High Court judge. An eminent
sportsperson/sports administrator/sports expert belonging to para-sports
will be a member of the committee.
"Not more than one
sportsperson of eminence/coach from a particular sports discipline shall
be a member of the selection committee to avoid any bias in favour of a
particular discipline. Nomination agencies are expected to send
nominations of most deserving sportsperson(s)/coach(es) irrespective of
whether sportspersons/coaches have applied to them for awards," the
sports ministry said in a release.
In another major decision, the
ministry decided to give more marks for wins in individual events. For
team events, marks will be computed taking into consideration the
strength of the team.
"For Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and
Dronacharya awards, the weightage for performance in sports events has
been reduced from 90 percent to 80 percent and weightage of marks to be
given by the selection committee for factors like profile and standard
of sports events has been increased from 10 percent to 20 percent," the
release added.
"This will increase the say of the selection
committee in the process of selection and give sufficient play to the
profile and standard of sports events in determination of awardees."
The
ministry also decided to videograph the proceedings of the selection
committee. It stated that the views of that discipline's experts will be
obtained for shortlisted nominations in team games.