By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 22 Mar: Badminton player Lakshya Sen and Athlete Chandan Singh will get Uttarakhand Khel Ratna for 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively. The list of names for Dronacharya and Khel Ratna awards has been finalised by Uttarakhand. The award function will be held on 24 March in which Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will present the award and also honour the coaches. In the programme, Devbhoomi Uttarakhand Khel Ratna, Devbhoomi Uttarakhand Dronacharya Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and cash prizes will be given to the award winning players and their coaches in national competitions in the years 2021 and 2022 for the years 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. Along with the awards, 168 national level medal winning players and 42 coaches will also be honoured with cash prizes for the year 2021 and 2022. For this, cash prizes of a total amount of Rs 2.08 crore will be distributed to the players and coaches.
Sources said that Devbhoomi Uttarakhand Khel Ratna will be given to badminton player Lakshya Sen for the year 2019-20 and athlete Chandan Singh for the year 2020-21. Devbhoomi Uttarakhand Dronacharya Award will be given to badminton coach Dhirendra Kumar Sen for the year 2019-20, Taekwondo coach Kamlesh Kumar Tiwari for the year 2020-21 and Archery coach Sandeep Kumar Duklan for the year 2021-22. The Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2021-22 will be presented to Suresh Chandra Pandey for his outstanding contribution to athletics.
It may be recalled that the awards had not been awarded during past four years for various reasons. According to the officials of the Sports Department, the players and sports coaches could not be rewarded in the state for the last four years due to Covid and other reasons, but now they will be rewarded after the announcement of the awards.
So far, no name has been finalised for the Himalaya Putra Award though an announcement had been made in this respect last year. However, the sports department did not invite any application for this award.
