In a recent development, boxing star Amit Panghal on Friday appealed to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday to make the national sports awards application free.

Panghal, who made national headlines last year by becoming the first Indian to win silver in the men’s boxing World Championships, stated that the current process of nomination for the National Sports Awards lacks transparency and many technicalities often lead to sportspersons deserving these awards not getting recognised.

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“Current process is that a sportsperson has to send an application and then sports committee selects on the basis of such received applications. This process itself is very difficult as many times on technical grounds of application, deserving sportsperson has been denied such prestigious sports award. Award selection is also based on discriminative decision of sports committee members who hold no accountability of decision,” said Panghal in a letter to Rijiju.

“This is also a request from many sportspersons to make this process very simple and transparent as their achievements are crystal clear and they should be rewarded by giving awards.

“Most of the prestigious awards in the world have been given without asking for nomination/application as in true spirit award is recognition of achievement of a sportsperson and he/she should not ask for it.

“This has a resemblance to the old system from the British era where achievers had to apply for an award. By making this process nomination/application free you will be doing a solid change in the sports award system of India. In view of next year’s Olympics, this step of yours will be a milestone for sportspersons as all are committed to make India Olympic medal tally in double-digit.”

Request For Nomination\ Application Free Awards 🙏🙏🙏 @KirenRijiju @RijijuOffice @Media_SAI @DGSAI pic.twitter.com/3rUUN5sPuC

— Amit Panghal (@Boxerpanghal) May 15, 2020

The Sports Ministry is currently accepting nominations from various national sports federations for the National Sports Awards which include the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the Arjuna award, the Dronacharya Award and the Dhyanchand Award. The ministry has also given a deadline of 3 June to file the applications.

The entire process was delayed by a month this year owing to the coronavirus pandemic.