Awardees forced to jostle for space as BBMP doubles list to 500  

BENGALURU:  250, 251, 500: Nobody had any clue to who was getting the Kempegowda award on Saturday. It looked like almost everyone present at the function was getting it. For the awards list went on increasing by the day! Confusion and chaos marked the prestigious Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Awards ceremony owing to the huge number of awardees and the lack of space at the BBMP head office here. The list of awardees, initially pegged at around 250, ballooned to over 500 in the short duration between August 7 and the awards ceremony on Saturday. 

Deputy CM G Parameshwara said at the function that over 500 people would be conferred with the award, with each of them receiving a cash purse of Rs 25,000, a citation and a memento. The Awards are given to achievers in various fields.  A BBMP councillor said a total of 516 people had been selected for the award.
However, the presentation ceremony saw confusion reign supreme as anxious awardees flocked to the stage and took over every available space in and around the announcers pulpit asking when their names would be called.

The announcers lost their cool several times when they were stopped during their announcements by people asking them for a copy of the list. More than once, the recipients had to be told to approach the stage only after their names were announced. The anchors could be seen asking the recipients to show some patience as the awards ceremony dragged on well into the evening. The hall and stage, located inside the BBMP head office, were jampacked since before the awards ceremony began and seating space was impossible to find.

According to sources, the reason for the massive increase in awardees could be pressure brought by different political factions. With a coalition government in power, leaders from each party is likely to have pushed for their favourites to make the list. The BJP also, would have lobbied for some of their supporters to receive awards. Speaking to Express, Ramchandrappa, former mayor said, “When I was the mayor in 2000, we gave 22 awards to different people. There has to be some restriction in the number of awards given to ensure the dignity of the award. Political interference must not be there and a committee of judges could be formed to select the winners nexttime.”

This year some of the well-known recipients include actors Ramesh Aravind and Darshan, Directors T N Seetaharam and B Suresha and Agriculture Scientist Padmabhushan Mahedavappa. At the event, G Parameshwara said that in spite of the opposition by many citizens, the proposal to construct a pod taxi service had been approved and would be taken forward.

“Just now, I directed the Sampath Raj to designate one BBMP hospital only for pourakarmikas,” he said. Actor Srujan Lokesh announced that Sandalwood actor Darshan and himself, both recipients of the award, would contribute a sum of Rs 50,000 for the upliftment of pourakarmikas. The awards ceremony was postponed twice ---the first time owing to the death of DMK leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi, and the second time due to the death of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.