Priyanka Parida (16), who is having multiple disability (mentally challenged with hearing impaired), on Thursday was felicitated by several citizens, organisations and institutions here for bagging a gold medal in the special Olympics World Winter Games that was held in Pyeongchang, South Korea from January 29 to February 5 last. Priyanka bagged gold medal for the country in the Special Olympics World Winter Games in snowboarding event.
The Kendrapada Credit Co-operative Society limited felicitated her by providing her with a shawl, citation and cash by organizing a felicitation meeting at its head office. Similarly, priyanka received felicitations from a host of organizations and institutions at a programme here. BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra was the guest on the occasion.
The Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea where a total of 2,200 athletes from 120 countries participated in 55 events in eight sports ,including Alpine Skiing, Cross–Country Skiing, Snowboarding, Snowshoeing, Speed Skating, Figure Skating, Floor Hockey and Floor Ball.
While addressing in the function, BJP leader Mohapatra slammed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for hurriedly providing felicitation to Priyanka at his chamber .The State Government should felicitated the girl, who made the State and the country proud by bagging a gold medal at snow boarding event, he opined.
Mohapatra said that earlier Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav felicitated Priyanka and provided a cash prize of Rs 1.21 lakh for her success in the Special Olympics Games and even, lt Gen Anil Chait, Army Commander, Central Command also felicitated her by giving a laptop, besides cash incentives. But it is purely ruse on the part of the State Government of Odisha, which only announced to provide cash incentive to Priyanka, he lamented.