Odisha CM Majhi Asserts Biju Patnaik Sports Award Name Will Remain Unchanged: Here's All About It

A couple of days after Odisha’s sports department announced the renaming of the state’s highest sports honour, the Biju Patnaik Sports Award, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has today (21 July) declared that the award would retain its original name.

On 19 July, the department had issued a notification changing the nomenclature of highest sports award of the state, as “Odisha Rajya Krida Samman.”

Majhi stated, “I learned about the name change of the Biju Patnaik Sports Award through the media. No decision was made to change the name of the sports award.”

He further emphasised that his government respected all eminent personalities of Odisha, adding that the social and political contributions of “Biju Babu” would continue to be in recollections of both the state and the country.

The department’s move to change the award’s name had sparked vehement protests from the Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Senior BJD leader Arun Kumar Sahoo requested the rulling dispensation to “refrain” from making such decisions.

Members of the sports community and senior Congress leaders also critiqued the decision, arguing that Biju Patnaik was “above politics” and revered by leaders across party lines.

The award, started by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik in 2001-02 in honour of his father, is given yearly at a special ceremony on National Sports Day – 29 August. It was started to “commemorate the yeoman service of the late legendary leader” towards the growth of sports and games in the state.

The award is given in eight varied sections: lifetime achievement, outstanding performance in sports and games, excellence in coaching, best contribution to the promotion of sports and games, excellence in sports journalism, para sportsperson, upcoming athlete (junior category), and sports technical officer/support staff.