The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports have rejected the nominations for national awards of Dutee Chand and Harbhajan Singh.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports rejected the nominations of Indian sprinter Dutee Chand for Arjuna Award, and cricketer Harbhajan Singh for Khel Ratna.
"The state governments filed the nominations after the deadline and that is why their names were rejected. Especially in Chand's case, apart from missing deadline, her medals were also not in order of ranking. Ministry has asked Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to give the order of ranking for given nominations and she stands at fifth. So her nomination was rejected," a source in the Sports Authority of India (SAI) said.
Dutee Chand revealed that she has urged chief minister Naveen Patnaik to resend the nomination to the Sports Ministry for consideration.
"I met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and showed him the gold medal that I won in the World University Games in Napoli and requested him to resend my file. He assured me that he will send my nomination again for Arjuna Award and said you do not worry and prepare for the upcoming competitions," Chand said.
"As of now Arjuna Award is not missed as the final result is yet to come officially. I got to know that my nomination was filed late that might be because of the elections (general and state assembly) and cyclone Fani," she added.
Dutee Chand won the gold medal in the 100m race in Napoli’s World University Games, and also holds the national record for the event (11.24s).
"My performance is consistent from 2013. I bagged two medals in Jakarta and now I won the gold medal in the World University Games and I hope that I win more medals for my country in the future," Chand said.
Harbhajan Singh, meanwhile, was the part of India’s two World Cup-winning campaigns (T20 World Cup in 2007 and fifty-over World Cup in 2011). The Indian bowler represented the team in 103 Test matches, taking 417 wickets, and 236 ODIs, taking 269 wickets.
