State government behind schedule for the announcement of list of Rajyotsava Award winners.
BENGALURU: The state government is behind schedule this year for the announcement of the list of Rajyotsava Award winners for the year 2018. It seems to be that it will take yet another week, even as the applicants are eagerly waiting, and hoping to see their names on the list.
The announcement of the Rajyotsava awards list was delayed due to the model code of conduct that came into effect after the announcement of the by elections to three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies on 3rd of November
Eventually, the chief minister HD Kumaraswamy had announced that he would be taking swift action after the polls and release the final list of the awardees by November 15th.
The selection panel which is under Kannada and the culture minister Jayamala Ramachandra has already recommended a list of 126 names who are eligible for the Rajyotsava awards. The high-level committee which is headed by Kumaraswamy has to now finalise the names of 63 awardees from the recommended list.
But the three-day break of the chief minister because of his health and the Tipu Jayanti controversy, has been followed by the untimely demise of HN Ananth Kumar the Union minister and the three-day mourning period, is expected to delay the announcement even more.
“The high-level committee is yet to meet even once to finalise names,” sources said.
“With the CM scheduled to visit Bidar on November 15 for the launch of new schemes, the meeting is expected to be held after he returns to Bengaluru,” said an official in the chief minister’s office.
The high-level committee which is comprised of water resources minister D K Shivakumar, law and parliamentary affairs minister Krishna Byre Gowda, deputy chief minister G Parameshwara and the CM.
Sources in the Kannada and culture department said that the list of awardees is mostly expected to be announced only by the end of this month, and the awards may be distributed in the month of December, a first in the history of Karnataka.