Bhubaneswar: Nearly four years after winning a silver medal for India at the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition, Praveen Kumar Giri, who pursued his technical education in Odisha, is still waiting for the Rs 50 lakh cash award publicly promised by the state govt.While the commissioner-cum-secretary of the skill development department could not be contacted, a senior official said there has been no official communication regarding the release of the cash prize to the WorldSkills 2022 Special Edition winners.Giri represented India in Water Technology at the international skills competition, scoring 713 points to win the silver medal. At the time, he was a student at C V Raman Global University (CGU), Bhubaneswar, where he received training and expert support for the competition.In May 2022, then chief minister Naveen Patnaik had announced cash awards of Rs 1 crore for gold, Rs 50 lakh for silver and Rs 25 lakh for bronze medallists from Odisha at the WorldSkills competitions. CGU was specifically mentioned in the announcement.Giri recently wrote to the skill development and technical education department, seeking an update on the pending award money and filed another grievance petition in the govt’s e-janasunani portal.Giri said earlier in 2024, he had filed a grievance through the e-Janasunani portal over the lack of recognition and felicitation for team Odisha at WorldSkills 2022. “The matter reached the directorate of skill development-cum-employment. In a communication dated June 13, 2024, the directorate referred to my grievance and enclosed a status report. The report said no letter, file or official communication concerning disbursement of the prize money had been issued or received by the directorate of employment,” said Giri, who is currently pursuing a degree in water resources engineering and management at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.The communication further stated that there was no govt approval, financial sanction or official communication from the skill development and technical education department or Odisha Skill Development Authority for releasing the cash award to the WorldSkills 2022 medal winners.Since then, Giri said, he has made repeated representations to the authorities concerned. “The prize money for the two 2024 WorldSkills winners was distributed under the same scheme, whereas I have to follow up with the officials concerned time and again for my cash prize,” he said.
