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Sanjita Chanu moves Delhi HC over Exclusion from Arjuna Award list

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Poorvi Gupta
New Update

The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medal winner in the 48 kg weight category, Sanjita Chanu has been left out of the Arjuna Award list this year too. She filed a writ petition against the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs before the Delhi High Court for not including her name in the 2017 list.

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In the petition, she informed that the sports ministry did not include her for two consecutive years. This is despite her ‘better achievements’ and ‘higher qualification marks’ than the nominated lot. Justice Vibhu Bakhru is overseeing the petition. He instructed the ministry to file minutes of the meeting of the Arjuna awards selection committee on Friday. This will help in analyzing Chanu's exclusion from the list.

The sports ministry gave Sanjita Chanu 32.8 points based on the weightage in 2016. But a woman hockey player with 8.41points won the Arjuna Award.

“Under the scheme of the Arjuna awards given by the ministry there is a points system. In Chanu’s case, she had got 45 points. She is a Commonwealth Games 2014 (Glasgow) gold medallist for which she earns 30 points and another gold at the Commonwealth Senior Women Weightlifting Championships in 2015 for which she is eligible for 15 points. Together, she has a total of 45 points. Sports persons who have not even silver or bronze in CWG 2014 have got the Arjuna award,” her lawyer Hemant Raj Phalper said, the Indian Express reported.

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Earlier in 2016, 2014 CWG gold medallist Sathish Sivalingam (77 kg) earned the honour.

Chanu remains forgotten from the prestigious award list, even the Indian Weightlifting Federation nominated her during last year.

The weightlifter’s lawyer filed an RTI to know the minutes of the meeting held in 2016. And it reveals that the sports ministry gave Chanu 32.8 points based on the weightage. But a woman hockey player with 8.41 points won the award. And in total, four sports persons who had a lower score than Chanu won the honour. The Weightlifting Federation of India Vice-president Sahdev Yadav agrees that Chanu’s name appeared both in 2016 and 2017 list.

Picture credit- Alchetron

Arjuna Award CWG 2014 Sanjita Chanu gold medallist Sports Ministry Weightlifter Sanjita Chanu
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