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| Bachendri Pal at her office in Jamshedpur on Tuesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad |
Jamshedpur, July 26: Mountaineer Bachendri Pal is back in the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards panel after a gap of 18 years.
The 57-year-old chief of Tata Steel adventure programmes has been inducted as a national selection panel member for the awards for 2010.
The Union ministry of youth affairs and sports recently constituted the six-member selection committee. Chaired by sports and youth affairs minister Ajay Maken, who is known to be a golf and cricket enthusiast, it also includes Sindhushree Khullar (secretary, sports ministry), Chandra Shekhar Dubey (geology head of department, Delhi University), Sandeep Dwivedi (journalist) and Rakesh Mohan (joint secretary, sports ministry).
“I’m back in the selection committee after 18 long years. I was part of the panel in 1993,” Bachendri told The Telegraph. She and 19 others were also among the first recipients of the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Awards, in 1993.
“I was chosen for leading the Indo-Nepalese Women’s Everest Expedition. But I prevailed upon the sports department to recognise the 19 other members, too,” she recalled.
Bachendri is also a member of the Planning Commission’s steering committee for youth and sports.