Chandigarh, Jul 23 (UNI) Recognizing the feat of Third 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 on Thursday 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 6 to 13, 2018, Rana sodhi exhorted them to further accomplish their set goals and bring laurel to the state. He assured them to provide all possible help in kind of financial assistance, infrastructure and job opportunities.
The Minister informed that adhering to the instructions of Chief Minister Capt 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”, he said.
Rana Sodhi said 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”, he 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.
He also 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 three per cent 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.
UNI DB PS 1656