Bengaluru: Letting the people have a say in the coveted Padma awards, the Union health ministry allowed them to propose the names of achievers working in remote areas of the country and other unsung heroes for them.The result was the ministry received as many as 786 names of achievers for the awards from Karnataka. Interestingly, former Isro chairman and Padma Vibhushan awardee, Prof. UR Rao's name was proposed by several, including present Isro chairman, A.S. Kiran Kumar.
The state government, for its part, recommended 29 names. But only seven of them made it to the final list of awardees.“We started this initiative to enable the general public to nominate the unsung heroes,who don't get any recognition for the work they do. Instead, most recommended the known achievers. Many even recommended their own names for the award,” said an officer of the health ministry.
But the government intends to continue with this new initiative in future too, according to him. “But we would like people to utilise this opportunity to draw attention to those achievers who don't get the recognition they deserve. This will be an inspiration to others,” he added. Overall, 18,768 nominations were received for the Padma awards from across the country. Of them, 3,211 were from Maharashtra and 951 from Uttar Pradesh, according to official sources.
