By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneshwar, July 20, 2024: The newly elected BJP government has renamed Biju Patnaik Sports Award – the state’s highest honour in the field of sports – as ‘Odisha Rajya Krida Samman’.

The state sports and youth affairs department has issued notification to this effect on Friday.

The award, first instituted by the Naveen Patnaik government in honour of his father and former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik, is given every year at a special ceremony on National Sports Day on August 29.

So far, the award has been given in five categories — life time achievement, outstanding performance in sports and games, excellence in coaching, best contribution to promotion of sports and games and excellence in sports journalism. However, the latest notification said it would be adding three more categories —para sports person of the year, upcoming athlete of the year (junior category), and sports technical officer/support staff.

According to the guidelines, the lifetime achievement award for promoting sports will carry a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh, while Rs 2 lakh will be awarded for outstanding performance in sports, and Rs 1 lakh for excellence in coaching.

Similarly, a cash award of Rs 1 lakh will be given in each of the following categories – best contribution to sports promotion, excellence in sports journalism, para-sports person of the year, upcoming athlete of the year (junior category), and sports technical official/support staff of the year.

The award recipient must be a resident of Odisha and free of any criminal convictions. It will be conferred only once per lifetime per category and can be awarded posthumously to the next of kin.

Though the Odisha government is yet to make any official comment on renaming the award, the BJD strongly opposed the move.

Senior BJD leader Arun Kumar Sahoo said Biju Patnaik is not just an individual but an institution who has earned international laurels. “Leaders across parties respect Biju babu. He participated in the freedom struggle of the country. I request the government to refrain from such decisions,” Sahoo told reporters.

The BJP government, however, plans to rename several popular schemes from the previous BJD administration, including the LAaccMI (Location Accessible Multi-modal Initiative) rural bus service, Mo Bus city service, and Aahaar (Rs 5 per meal scheme).