A seven-member evaluation committee, constituted to scrutinize applications and make recommendation for conferment of Biju Patnaik State Sports Awards for three years (2010, 2011 and 2012), adjourned its meeting after two-hour-long exerciese here at the Sports & Youth Services Department complex today.
According to inside sources, lack of documents to substantiate the achievements and contributions of some of the applicants led to the adjournment of the meeting, which is likely to be held after May 15. Four of the seven members attended the meeting, which took place under the chairmanship of former  Police DG Gopal Chandra Nanda. Ambiguity in the guidelines and incorrect data supplied by the departmental scrutiny committee were other reasons for the adjournment.
It was also evident from the meeting that due to a few lop-sided yardsticks in the guidelines, some of the highly deserving aspirants are not applying for the awards and the applications of other well-deserving candidates are getting rejected. On the other hand, taking advantage of the loopholes in the guidelines, undeserving people are getting closer to grab the awards, the highest of its kind given by the government.
For instance, the scrutiny committee, comprising four sports department officers, placed before the evaluation committee a meager total 86 applications for three years. The applications were meant for four categories of awards _ life-time achievement, sportsperson of the year, outstanding coach and Outstanding sports journalist.
But when counted, the total number of applications were found to be 75. There were only two applicants, instead of 13 as mentioned by the scrutiny committee for the 2012 life-time achievement award and evaluation committee had no other option but select one of the two even though both were undeserving ones.
Due to less number of applicants, those who applied for all three years, stood a good chance to get selected for any of the three. Coaches with the reputation of grooming international medals were found ineligible for the award as they did not possess NIS diploma certificates.
The previous evaluation committee at its meeting three years back had urged the government to amend the eligibility criteria for the coaches and make eligible those who have acquired coaching qualification or license from recognised national or international sports bodies. But the criteria remains the same, denying the award to eminent coaches like Jose Jacob, whose pupils have won more than 100 national and international medals so far.
With the evaluation committee, featuring former Indian woman football captain Sradhanjali Samnataray, Arjuna Award winning woman cyclist Minati Mohapatra and former East Coast Railway Sports Association president D K Samantaray, not taking a final decision on Monday, it is time for the government to amend the guidelines and make the awards truly the highest sporting honour in the state.
Olympian Rachita Mistry, Parbati Mahanta (both athletics) and Santanu Satpathy (cricket) were leading contenders for the life-time achievement award. Prominent names in the race for outstanding sportsperson award included weightlifter K Ravi Kumar, rower Pratima Puhana, karateka Valena Valentine, shooter Shriyanka Sadangi and women footballer Sasmita Mallick.
Front-runners for the outstanding coach award were Ashok Mishra (gymnastics), Jose Jacob (rowing), P Dharma Rao (weightlifting), Gangadhar Behera and Subodh Kumar Jena (both football). Sarbeswar Mohanty, Tapan Swain and Debasis Sundaray were clear favourites in the sports journalists category.
Instituted in the year 2001-2002, the awards carry a cheque of Rs 1.5 lakh for life-time achievement, Rs 1 lakh for sportsperson of the year, Rs 50,000 for outstanding coach and Rs 30,000 for sports journalist. Besides the cheque, each of the awardees will be given a silver statuette, scroll of honour, blazer and tie.
Though an annual award, it has become a triennial affair. Last time, the awards were conferred on March 5, 2011 and that too for three years at time. This time the evaluation is also being done for three years.
The award is no doubt a commendable step on the part of the state government to recognise and honour the achievement and contribution of sportspersons, coaches and journalists for the promotion of sports in the state. But the scheme is losing some of its significance due to delay or irregularity in conferment.
Instituted in the name of legendary statesman and eminent sportsperson Late Biju Patnaik, the award has so far been conferred on a total of 39 people, including 18 sportspersons, 11 coaches and 10 journalists.

ROLL OF HONOUR (2001 to 2009):
Life-time Achievement: Golak Samal, Arupananda Routray, Late Nanda Krushna Das, Sanat Mishra, Minati Mohapatra, Debendra Prasad Singh, Usha Rani Mishra (Lesli), Hemanta Kumar Patel, Dr Bibekananda Tripathy.
Sportsperson of Year: Sahebani Oram, Anuradha Biswal, Dilip Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey, Sradhanjali Samantaray, Jyoti Sunita Kullu, Padmini Rout, Srabani Nanda, Prabodh Tirkey.
Oustanding Coach: Kamal Ganguly, Sylvester Toppo, Subash Chandra Dasmohapatra, Kishore Mania, Panchanan Gantayat, Arun Kumar Das, Bijay Kumar Kanungo, Amulyananda Bihari, Chitta Ranjan Mohapatra, Nila Madhab Deo, Kalu Charan Choudhury.
Outstanding Sports Journalist: Sanatan Pani, Sambit Mohapatra, Samikshya Patnaik, Himanshu Sekhar Patimishra, Susanta Kumar Mohanty, Suresh Swain, Sanjib Biswal, Debi Prasanna Mohanty, Gyana Ranjan Mishra, D Niranjan Reddy.