New Delhi: The environment ministry has decided to bring together all awards and fellowships granted by it every year under one umbrella and disburse them at a single function. Along with it, there is also a move to rename some of the awards that are currently named after the members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, according to two ministry officials, on condition of anonymity.
A presentation to streamline the various awards was made to the minister of environment, forests and climate change, Prakash Javadekar, on 3 July afternoon by the senior officials of the ministry. One of the officials cited earlier said the plan is at the initial stages and will be ready in the next two to three meetings.
The official also clarified that awards named after former prime ministers are unlikely to be changed. “We are trying to bring all awards together... confer them together at one function. Names in most probability would not be changed,” the official said.
However, there is also a view in the ministry to rename awards named after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family to those of wildlife experts or conservationists, or leave them without naming them after anyone, said the second official.
Currently, there are at least 17 awards and fellowships spread over 50 categories, all together worth at least Rs.4 crore, that the ministry gives away every year. Of this, two each are named after ex-prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. But there have been instances when the award meant for a particular year is conferred years later.
For instance, former environment minister M. Veerappa Moily conferred the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar 2010 in February 2014. Similarly, the ministry invited nominations for the Pitambar Pant National Environment Fellowship for 2013-14 and 2015 together in September 2015. In many cases, meetings to select awardees for 2012 have not yet been convened.
“The main idea is to rationalize and streamline the awards that, at present, are given across the year. Right now, there is no fixed time or schedule for conferring these awards. We are trying to bring them under one umbrella—like national environment awards—and having one big function every year where the president or prime minister gives away these awards,” said the second official cited earlier. “This way, awards could be more prestigious and also save resources of ministry as there would not be separate functions.”
In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader M. Venkaiah Naidu had attacked the Congress party for glorifying the contributions of the Nehru-Gandhi family by launching 650 schemes named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Naidu had promised that, if elected, the BJP would review, rationalize and rename such awards and schemes.
The Union home ministry in March 2015 renamed the Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar and Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik Pustak Lekhan Puruskar to Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar and Rajbhasha Gaurav Puruskar, respectively.
