Tuesday, August 30, 2011
National sports awards winners List
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award:
Gagan Narang (shooting).
Dronacharya Award:
Kuntal Kumar Roy (athletics)
I. Venkateshwara Rao (boxing)
Devender Kumar Rathore (gymnastics)
Rajinder Singh (hockey), Ramphal (wrestling)
Arjuna Award:
Rahul Banerjee (archery)
Preeja Sreedharan (athletics)
Vikas Gowda (athletics)
Jwala Gutta (badminton)
M Suranjoy Singh (boxing)
Zaheer Khan (cricket)
Sunil Chhetri (football)
Ashish Kumar (gymnastics)
Rajpal Singh (hockey)
Rakesh Kumar (kabaddi)
Tejeswini Bai (kabaddi),
Tejaswini Sawant (shooting)
Vikram Khade (swimming)
Somdev Devvarman (tennis)
Sanjay Kumar (volleyball)
Ravinder Singh (wrestling)
K. Ravi Kumar (weightlifting)
Sandhyarani Devi (wushu)
Prasanta Karmakar (physically challenged swimmer).
Dhyan Chand Award:
Shabbir Ali (football)
Sushil Kohli (swimming)
Raj Kumar (wrestling)
Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award:
Reena Dharmshaktu (mountaineering)
Mamta Sodha (mountaineering)
Dilip Donde (sailing)
late Balwant Singh Sandhu (mountaineering)
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar:
Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and N. Ramachandran (Sports Academies of Excellence).
Athletes honoured with sports awards
Shooter Gagan Narang was bestowed with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest sports award in the country, by President of India Pratibha Patil at an investiture ceremony to honour the National sports award winners at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan here today.
The current double world-record holder in the 10-metre air rifle event, Narang had won four gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, two silver medals in the Asian Games in China and a clutch of other medals in international meets to emerge as the sole candidate for the Khel Ratna Award.
The president also presented the Dronacharya, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Tenzing Norgay awards. Though the invitation card had mentioned the Maulana Abul Kalam Award (MAKA) Trophy as well, it was not presented this year, though no reason was given for not awarding the trophy to the university with best sporting achievements.
A source said the MAKA Trophy was withheld due to the fight between Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and consequently the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) did not go through the process of selecting the best university. Compared to other years, the award function was rather subdued.
Barring Sports Minister Ajay Maken and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, no other union minister was present. There were also four absentees among the Arjuna Award winners — cricketer Zaheer Khan, tennis star Somdev Devvarman, discus thrower Vikas Gowda and gymnast Ashish Kumar.
Say ‘no’ to ragging
IT is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This truly stands correct in the case of ragging. Though ragging was intended to provide good humour and harmless fun to students, today it has assumed torturous, vulgar and inhuman forms that defy all norms of decency and morality. What began from a friendly introduction turned to disgusting and perverted overtones.
Ragging is an act of aggression committed by an individual or a group of individuals over another individual or a group of individuals and by virtue of their being senior, somehow get the authority and audacity to commit the act to the freshers of the institution. It is any act which causes, or is likely to cause, any physical, psychological or physiological harm of apprehension or shame or embarrassment to a student, and may include teasing or abusing of playing practical joke, or causing hurt to any student, asking any student to do any act or perform any thing which he/she would not otherwise be willing to do or perform.
Ragging is supposed to have its origin in certain European universities, where seniors played practical jokes at the time of welcoming freshers to institutions. Gradually, it became popular throughout the world. However, with time, it has assumed obnoxious and harmful connotations and needs to be severely condemned. Today, almost all countries of the world have enacted stern laws that ban ragging and it has been completely eradicated in countries such as Canada and Japan. But sadly, India, which inherited ragging as a legacy from the British Raj, has not been able to free itself from the clutches of this inhuman practise which is believed to be a major factor that often leads to campus violence and suicides in educational institutions. India and Sri Lanka are the only two countries in the world where ragging exists in the most condemnable form.
Ragging is not merely a socio-legal problem, it has a certain psychological basis that nurtures a sense of authority in an individual, which boosts his morale and puts him on a high by having the freshmen always at his command. Senior students believe that since they were ragged, they have the right to rag their juniors. It also gives them an opportunity to satiate their sadistic pleasures at the cost of a poor freshmen’s imagination. But not always all seniors who commit ragging enjoy doing it at their will. Seeing most of their batchmates indulging in ragging, they fear being left out and to avoid isolation, they too join the herd. Many senior students live under the misconception that ragging makes a style statement and thus will put them in the “influential crowd” of their college.
Let us examine some shocking forms of ragging. Some of the most popular forms prevalent in institutions are prescription of weird dress code which may make the freshmen feel awkward and uncomfortable as it often brings them unnecessary attention from everybody. Formal introduction as asking the freshmen to introduce themselves in pure local language. Verbal torture involves indulging in loose talks. The freshers may be asked to sing the lyrics of any vulgar song or use abusive language while talking to the seniors. Severest form of ragging that takes place in colleges is sexual abuse and the freshers are forced to try drugs thereby driving them into addiction.
In many cases, the freshers have been asked to strip before the seniors. They may be asked to enact scenes from a particular movie or mimic a particular film star, doing silly scenes, proposing to someone from the opposite sex, etc. Students who stay in hostels are most vulnerable to ragging. They may be asked to do all odd acts from cleaning the room of seniors to washing their clothes. This leads to loss of individuality and break the self-esteem of a newcomer. The fear engenders feelings of bitterness and revengefulness, which is often taken out on juniors next year.
Centre drops proposal for separate Sikh Marriage Act
The government has decided to drop the proposal for a separate law covering marriages solemnised within the Sikh community. Dealing a major blow to the aspirations of Sikhs, who have long been fighting for amendments to the existing Anand Karaj (Marriage) Act of 1909 to convert it into a comprehensive legislation governing Sikh marriages, the Ministry of Law and Justice today said there was no justification for a separate law and it had decided to abandon the proposal for any such amendment.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab has been on the forefront of the demand for changes in the Anand Karaj Act and the party’s core committee on political affairs had last year called upon the Centre for expeditious enactment of the Anand Marriage Act for Sikhs along the lines of similar acts for other religions (covering Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews).
Speaking to The Tribune today, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, leader of the Akali Dal in the Rajya Sabha, said he was given to understand by former Law Minister Veerappa Moily that a draft Bill for Sikh Marriage Act was ready and would be sent for the Cabinet approval soon before being placed in the Parliament.
“I am surprised at today’s decision of the government. We will take up the matter with the Prime Minister again,” Dhindsa said.
It was on Dhindsa’s query about the status of the said law that Law Minister Salman Khursheed today informed the Parliament that after receiving several representations for amendment to the Anand Marriage Act, 1909 to provide for compulsory registration of Sikh marriages, the government had decided to drop the proposal.
n The Sikh community has long been seeking their own law for registration of marriagesn At present, marriages amongst the Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and other communities except Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews, are covered by the Hindu Marriage Act 1955
n The government justified the rejection of community's demand saying such seclusion would invite similar demands from others.
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