Chandigarh, July 23:
Recognizing the feat of 3rd Para Asian Games’ medal winners and fulfilling the commitment of state government to provide cash incentives to sports gems, Punjab Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi today honoured three bronze medal winners with Rs.1.5 crore at his official residence here.
Bestowing Rs.50 lakh each to Parmjit Kumar (Jalandhar) of Power Lifting, Mohammad Yassir (Sangrur) of Shot-put and Raj Kumar (Patiala) of Badminton, who had won Bronze Medals in 3rd Para Asian Games held at Jakarta (Indonesia) from October 6th to 13th 2018, Rana sodhi exhorted them to further accomplish their set goals and bring laurel to the state. The Sports Minister assured them to provide all possible help in kind of financial assistance, infrastructure and job opportunities.
He informed that adhering to the instructions of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to accord cash incentives to medal winners in sports, the sports department has scrutinized applications of cash awardees, who brought glory to the state and made list of 1101 medalists to whom the state government will accord a total sum of Rs.4,85,46,100 as Cash Award till this September. The Awards will be given in segments and game wise as big gatherings may not be called due to Covid-19 pandemic.
“Winning medals by Sportspersons in different international and national sports competitions is a result of their hard work and focused and concerted approach. And, state government is committed to provide them handsome cash awards for their dedication and devotion towards sports”, said the Sports Minister, adding that to provide additional sports facilities to sportspersons of the state, a comprehensive Sports Policy 2018 has been notified in March 2019, by which amount of the cash awards was enhanced four times. He said that the sports department had distributed enhanced cash awards to the winners of Asian and Commonwealth Games 2018 as per New Policy.
“Earlier the cash award for the Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists of Asian Games was Rs.26 lakh, Rs.16 lakh and Rs.11 lakh was enhanced to Rs.1 crore, Rs.75 lakh and Rs.50 lakh, respectively. Similarly, the cash award to Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists of commonwealth games was Rs.16 lakh, Rs.11 lakh and Rs.6 lakh, which was further hiked to Rs.75 lakh, Rs.50 lakh and Rs.40 lakh, respectively”, Rana Sodhi added.
The Minister said that according to the New Sports Policy, all medal winners Paralympics, Para Asian and Para Commonwealth Games will get equal cash awards as compared to the medal winners of Olympic Games, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
Rana Sodhi further said that the state government has also in-principle decided to create separate quota for sportsperson in government jobs. He said the state government was committed to continuing with 3% reservation in all jobs of state Government, as well as in its Boards, Corporations, Cooperative/Statutory bodies and local authorities for graded sportspersons who are residents of Punjab and have represented the state at national level. Besides this, a significant decision was also taken to create more employment opportunities for the sportspersons in recent cabinet meeting, he said, adding that with this decision, Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists in national games/senior national championships/recognised International Tournaments would be eligible for recruitment for Class I and II posts.
On this Occasion, Mr. Husan Lal, Principal Secretary, Sports and Youth Services, Mr. D.P.S. Kharbanda, Director, Sports and Youth Services, Mr. Kartar Singh, Deputy Director, Mr. Parminder Singh Phulanwal, and Mr. Jaswant Zaffar from Paralympics Association were present.
