Awards gaffe turns BBMP’s nightmare

BENGALURU: At least 75 awardees called on to the stage had to return without the award or the memento or the cash prize, or all three of them; and most of them were told to head to the BBMP headquarters on Monday morning to collect what’s missing from the awards bouquet. This, in short, captures the Kempegowda awards ceremony held on Saturday night.
The number of awardees — achievers in music, art, public life, media and other fields felicitated by the BBMP every year — went up from 278 (announced on August 15) to an eye-popping 530 on the evening the awards were presented.The number kept increasing by the day with corporators and political leaders lobbying for their candidates. At least one leading theatreperson has expressed displeasure and said he’d return the award on Monday.

“I received a message that I had won the award, well before August 7, which is when the ceremony was supposed to be held, but was postponed due to the death of DMK leader M Karunanidhi,”said Devaraj R, a theatreperson.
75 not given Kempegowda Awards
During the awards ceremony on Saturday, confusion reigned on the stage. Some corporators who had nominated their people were calling them separately on the side and giving them awards. Towards the end, I was presented a shawl and a garland, but no award. Instead, the officers told me to come to the office on Monday to pick it up,” said Devaraj R. According to Devaraj, more than 75 people were not presented the award, and were asked to come to the BBMP head office on Monday.
Theatreperson Doddamane Venkatesh said the BBMP did not inform him he had been picked for the award. “A day before the ceremony, a journalist told me about the award. During the ceremony, they had mementos for around 225 people, and the number of awardees crossed 500. I got a shawl, garland and a box of dry fruits,” he said, adding he, too, would visit the head office to discuss the matter.
Mayor Sampath Raj said, “A consignment containing the awards was damaged in transit. Since we did not want to hand out broken awards, some people did not get them. We’ll hand them to the awardees on Monday.”
The Palike is no stranger to controversies and the number of awardees increased from 150 to 244 at the last minute last year. The winners did not receive the cash prize on the day of the event, and had to wait several weeks for the same.
“There are more than a million (sic) people living in Bengaluru, so there is nothing wrong in giving awards to 500 individuals. The committee, headed by mayor Sampath Raj, felt there were many people who had done good work and deserved to be recognized. So the number of awardees increased from 250 to 500,” said BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad, adding cash prize would be transferred via online transfer.
Kappanna to return award
Angered by the lack of respect shown towards the once prestigious award, veteran theatreperson Sreenivas G Kappanna said he would return the award to the Palike on Monday. “Kempegowda built Bengaluru, and it is impossible to believe the BBMP — the city’s caretaker — is giving out awards named after him in such a manner. I don’t want to be party to this,” he said. He suggested that the BBMP can celebrate Kempegowda Jayanti over a week with smaller functions in each of the eight zones, where the awardees can be felicitated.