Look at non-Delhi personalities for Arjuna, Dronacharya awards
Former Chief Selector of the national chess team and Grandmaster R.B. Ramesh
Chennai : Former Chief Selector of the national chess team and Grandmaster R.B. Ramesh on Saturday said the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports should carry out a survey among the top 50 Indian players while deciding on the Arjuna and Dronacharya awardees.
Ramesh hoped that the Sports Ministry will consider Non-Delhi centric chess players/coaches for the Arjuna and Dronacharya awards and that the cash incentive schemes for the support of sportsmen are not restricted to Delhi centric circles and distributed to players pan India.
The Arjuna and Dronacharya awards are given to outstanding sportspersons and coaches respectively.
In a series of tweets, Ramesh said: "Sports Ministry should circulate a questionnaire among top 50 Indian players and get direct information from them about who are deserving for Arjuna and Dronacharya awards and take them into consideration as well to undo injustice done in the past." He said during the decade 2010-2020 there were 16 GMs from Tamil Nadu, but the number of Arjuna awardees was zero.
Ramesh had recently resigned as the Chief of the Selection Committee of the All India Chess Federation (AICF).
Pointing out that the last three Arjuna awardees in chess are Tania Sachdev (Delhi 2009), ParimarjanNegi (Delhi 2010) and Abhijeet Gupta (Rajasthan 2013) Ramesh said there were no Arjuna awardees since then even though India had produced many strong players.
"I hope Sports Ministry will consider Non-Delhi centric chess players/coaches as well for awards like Arjuna and Dronacharya. Hope various cash incentive schemes which support sportsmen are not restricted to Delhi centric circles & are distributed to players pan India," Ramesh, hailing from Chennai the cradle of Indian chess, said.
"Unless the Ministry of Sports starts listening to stakeholders who are working on the ground and making a real difference, instead of officials and bureaucrats who have their own axe to grind, nothing will change for the better or it will take too much time," he added.