Puducherry: Alleging that the nomination for Padma Shri award for 2022 by the government of Puducherry is tainted with impropriety and brazan bias and favoritism, former Lok Sabha member from Puducherry Prof M Ramadass on Sunday urged Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan who is the chairperson of the high power selection committee asking her to explain the decision.
In a statement here, Ramadass said 44 persons had submitted their profiles on or before 10th August 2021, the last date to submit the profiles. The 15-member high power committee which met for one hour on 11th September 2021 selected three persons who did not submit their names and recommended the same to the government of India, he said. Ramadass clarified that this could be possible in exceptional cases when the three are more prominent and more distinguished than the 44 persons.
Ramadass said it is quite impossible even to casually peruse the bio-data of 44 applicants by 15 members in one hour. Further, some of the members of the high power committee do not possess even the necessary qualification, competence, capacity, and maturity even to understand the contents of the bio-data of some of the outstanding persons on the list.
Can a Selection Committee Member with VIII or X standard or an Arts Degree qualification assess the accomplishments of a renowned Clinical Immunologist or parasitologist or Etymologist or other highly qualified and outstanding persons, he asked.
