The Sports Department of the Orissa State Governement experienced embarrassment in the presence of its departmental secretary when Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT) conferred the 16th Ekalabya Award for the year 2008 on Asian junior girls’ chess champion Padmini Rout at a glittering function at Hotel Marrion in Bhubaneswar today.
Two years ago, the Government nominated Woman International Master Padmini for the Biju Patnaik Sportsperson of the Year Award, the highest State recongnition in the field of sports, but kept the award in the cold store as the selection of a studio photographer for the Outstanding Sports Journalist of the Year (2007) Award drew widespread criticism.
But IMPaCT, a charitable trust run by Orissa`s leading private company Indian Metal and Ferro Alloys (IMFA), capitalised on the State Government`s failure by conferring the equally important Ekalaby Award on the promising chess talent of the country. The entire episode proved to be slap on the face of the Government and a boost for the prestige of a private company.