Bhubaneswar: The BJD Saturday criticized the BJP government led by Chief Minister Mohan Majhi for renaming the Biju Patnaik Sports Award as the ‘Odisha Rajya Krida Samman.’
The Sports and Youth Affairs Department of the Odisha government, in a notification on Friday, renamed the Biju Patnaik Sports Award as the Odisha Rajya Krida Samman.
It announced that the state government would confer the Rajya Krida Samman in eight categories, subject to the availability of suitable candidates.
Strongly reacting to the BJP government’s decision to rename the Biju Patnaik Sports Award, which was launched by the Naveen Patnaik government in 2001-2002, BJD spokesman and former minister Arun Sahoo said the BJP government had resorted to narrow-minded politics of revenge.
Sahoo said, “Biju Patnaik was not just an individual but an institution, and leaders from across party lines respect Biju Babu.”
He added that Biju Babu had played a major role in the freedom struggle, had been honoured by three countries, and was a national asset.
The BJD leader urged the newly elected BJP government not to take any steps that would hurt the sentiments of the people of the state and requested the government to refrain from making such decisions.
UNI