bengaluru the 2019 prestigious rajyostava awards is fraught with controversies with the award being given to an institution of a suggestion and selection committee member apart from being accorded two bjp sympathiserson monday evening the state government released a list of 64 personalities and institutions who were conferred with the state award the list spanned across 24 different categorieshowever what appears to have been kept under wraps was the fact that one institution and two personalities who were conferred with the awards were either part of the committees for the awards and linked with the governmentone of the two institutions which were conferred with the rajyotsava awards is prabhat art international a dance schoolthe institution has been recognised for its contribution to society by way of it training scores of dancers in the classical art form of kathak and bharatanatyamhowever controversey has erupted over the fact that one of the foundersnirupama rajendra was part of the suggestion and selection committee for the rajyotsava awards 2019according to rules as admitted by the government itself no member on the suggestion or selection committee can nominate themselves for the awardsjustifying the selection of the institution for the rajyotsava awards kannada and culture department minister c t ravi said the founder nirupama was only part of the suggestion committee and not the selection committee that is headed by chief minister b s yediyurappawhile it is correct that no member can nominate themselves for the award nirupama rajendra was not part of the selection committee and was only associated with the suggestion committee the decision was taken by the cmled comittee to give the institution the award said ravihowever according to the department all those members on the suggestion committee were automatically included in the selection committeeravi went on to add that nirupama was not part of the school anymore and hence it could not be claimed that there was nepotismat the other end two prominent awardees who were given the rajyotsava under the miscellaneous category are also identified with the bjpaccording to bjp leaders and workers the two awardees are in fact recognised as part of the saffron brigade and cannot be differentiated as outsidersjustifying their inclusion in the list ravi said both the personalities were involved in providing serious employment to a lot of people in the stateboth vijay sankeshwar and prakash shetty are industrial stalwarts and have provided lot of employment to the people of this state nepotism cannot be attached to them in any way said ravihowever according to informed sources the decision to accord shetty was not taken by the kannada and culture department but was directly lobbied with the chief minister led committee