Arjuna award only for the
deserving: Padukone

Newly-appointed Arjuna awards selection committee chairman Prakash Padukone on Thursday declared he would not hesitate to effect changes in the guidelines for the country's highest sporting accolade to ensure that only the deserving get the prestigious award.

The 1980 All England badminton champion, who heads the 13-member committee which was constituted by the government on Monday, said he would spare no effort to bring about transparency in the selection procedure.

"Our main task will be to go through the guidelines and effect changes if required, so that only eligible and deserving candidates, who have brought laurels to the country, get the award in future," Padukone said.

The government decided to overhaul the committee early this year following widespread allegations of rampant lobbying and manipulation in the selection procedure of the awards. The controversy reached boiling point last year when 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh rejected the award and some sports persons even approached the Delhi high court, challenging its selection procedure.

But even before the court could come out with its verdict, Sports Minister Uma Bharti announced setting up of a new panel to select the awardees for this year.

S S Rana, the deputy secretary in the Ministry of Sports, is member-secretary of the committee, which includes sprint queen P T Usha, Sydney Olympics weightlifting bronze medallist Karnam Malleswari, 1975 hockey World Cup-winning captain Ajit Pal Singh, Test cricketer Chetan Chauhan and former women's squash champion Bhuvneshwari Kumari among others.

This year's Arjuna and Dhronacharya awards will be conferred on August 29.

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