Home ministry sets new benchmark to select candidates for the prestigious Padma Awards

NEW DELHI: The home ministry has set “excellence plus” as the new benchmark for choosing candidates for the prestigious Padma Awards, and said the exercise should not ignore exceptionally talented people shying away from publicity.

Tweaking the criteria for the awards, the ministry has also asked all states to recommend more talented women, handicapped persons and those from the SC/ST community for the yearly Padma Awards, which are announced on Republic Day.

The government has also brought forward the cut-off-date for receiving nominations for the Padma Awards by a month to September 15. This is to avoid a last-minute decisions or lobbying for the same. In the past, there have been allegations of favouritism and last-minute inclusions of “undeserving” persons in the list.

“There ought to be an element of public service in the achievements of the person to be selected. It should not be merely excellence in a particular field but excellence plus,” the ministry has specified.

In a letter seeking recommendations from all states, secretary (border management) in the home ministry, Sneh Lata Kumar, specified, “It may be ensured that the persons recommended are pre-eminently worthy of the awards, looking at their life-time achievement. The criteria for selection should invariably be excellence plus,” the letter sent last month said.

Hinting at deficiencies in the system, Kumar wrote, “It has been observed that while nominations are received in respect of a large number of persons, there could, however, be several talented persons who are left out of consideration despite exceptional contributions in their field. Often many of these persons may get overlooked primarily for the reason that they may not seek publicity or attention in the public domain.” Kumar went on to ask states to nominate such persons whose achievements “really deserve” to be recognised. “It goes without saying that recognition of such deserving persons will only add to the lustre of these awards.”