PANAJI: The presentation function of the prestigious Dilip Sardessai Sports Excellence Award which was scheduled to be organised by the Directorate of Sports & Youth Affairs on August 29
to mark the celebration of the National Sports Day at the Dinanath Mangueshkar Auditorium, Kala Academy, Panaji at the hands of Chief Minister, Mr Digamber Kamat, stands postponed in view of the sad demise of Ravindra Kelekar, the Dnyanpith Award winner. This was disclosed by the chief minister, during a press conference at the Minister’s Conference Hall Block at Porvorim Secretariat on Friday.
Mr Kamat informed pressmen that the presentation function of the Dilip Sardessai Sports Excellence Award stood postponed as a mark of respect to Kelekar, an eminent personality, who contributed most significantly to the state of Goa.
Mr Kamat further informed that the award function would be held after the Queen’s Baton Relay of the Commonwealth Games 2010 that will be passing through Goa on September 7 &8. "New date for the award function will be intimated in due course of time," Mr Kamat maintained.
Meanwhile, having gone through the merits of each sportspersons vis-à-vis their achievements for the preceding year 2009-10, the members have strongly recommended Talasha Satish Prabhu to be conferred with the prestigious Dilip Sardessai Award for the year 2010-11 for being the highest achiever at the recognised international swimming championships. Talasha duly participated in the 11th South Asian Federation Games in Dhaka in February 2010, wherein she secured a gold medal.
Meanwhile, pressmen informed the chief minister that the recipient’s name for the Dilip Sardessai award had been "selectively leaked" to a certain sections of the media and that the same was published much in advance, which in fact, had nullified the effect of today’s press conference which was very much called to disclose the details of the Sardessai award function.
The CM was requested not to include non-official members in the committee constituted to recommend the recipient of Dilip Sardessai Sports Excellence Award as there were chances that confidential information would be leaked selectively to scribes, an exercise that very much defeated the Government’s own purpose of announcing the name officially through press briefings. When pointed out that only selective journalists were informed about the name of the recipient of Dilip Sardessai award, the CM sought an answer from Dr Susana de Sousa, Director of Sports & Youth Affairs, who categorically stated that she had no clue on how the name was leaked out. However, it was stressed that such instances should not reoccur in the future. Meanwhile, the duly constituted committee by the Government for recommending recipient of Dilip Sardessai award, under the chairmanship of Dr M Modassir, Secretary for Sports & Youth Affairs, comprises: Dr Susana de Sousa, Director of Sports & Youth Affairs, Mr V M Prabhudessai, Executive Director of SAG, Mr Gurudatta Bhakta, secretary, Goa Olympic Association, Mr Milton Fernandes, Asst. Director Physical Education & Sports, Goa University, Mr Bruno Coutinho, Arjuna Awardee and Mr Surinder Rajput, Administrator (Goa), Sports Authority of India.
