Chaos reigns supreme at Kempegowda Awards ceremony

Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), on Saturday conferred the prestigious Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Awards to over 500 achievers.

Slated to be held in August, the ceremony had been postponed twice owing to the demise of DMK leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi and later due to the death of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

However, the event turned out to be a total chaos, primarily due to the huge number of awardees and also due to lack of space at the venue.

According to a BBMP official, this year around 516 achievers had been feted, a startling jump from the 220 achievers feted last year. Several names had been added to the list in the last few days, said the official adding that initially 328 people had been chosen for the awards.

Given the huge list, few of the awardees kept approaching the stage to enquire when their names would be announced and the organisers kept pleading with them to maintain calm and arrive on stage only after their respective names were announced. Few of others even complained that they had been intimated about their nomination on the day of the event itself while others grudged about the seating arrangements.

The awards were presented by Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister G Parameshwara. Ironically, the Deputy Chief Minister himself was unaware of the achievements of the awardees in their respective fields. 

Actors Ramesh Aravind and Darshan, Directors T N Seetaharam and B Suresha and Agriculture Scientist Padmabhushan Mahedavappa were among those who received the awards this year.