Padma Awards: State suggests 37 names for final cut

Though most of the recommendations are based on the applications received by the government, the panel of eight senior ministers, who screened the names, have added eight names as their suo motu recommendations

Though Maharashtra does not fare too well when it comes to the Centre accepting their recommendations for the Padma Awards, the state government has given a list of 37 names for the awards that will be announced on Republic Day.

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Though most of the recommendations are based on the applications received by the government, the panel of eight senior ministers, who screened the names, have added eight names as their suo motu recommendations.

As part of the process followed each year, the state government finalised the list of 37 names to be recommended for Padm Shri, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Vibhushan in a recent meeting of high-level committee comprising eight ministers. In the list, about 80% of the recommendations have been made for Padma Shri, while the rest are for other two categories. The committee, headed by housing minister Prakash Mehta, chose most of the names from the 200 applications. Eight names were added by the ministers at the meeting.

“We rarely find the names recommended by us in the final list announced by the Centre. Last year, none of the names made the final cut. In 2014, Ramkrishan Hosur (science and engineering) and Narendra Dabholkar (social work) were picked from our list. In 2013, only two names Professor Sharad Kale (science) and Nileema Mishra (social work) were picked for Padma Shri,” said an official from general administration department.

“Most of the awardees picked up from Maharashtra are either from the recommendations the Centre gets directly or chosen by committees appointed by it,” he added. The official said that of the 200 applications and recommendations they received this year, 30% were from the field of medicine, while rest were from sports, social work and public affairs, industry and education.