Punjab sportspersons to get cash awards

Chandigarh, Nov 17 (UNI) The Punjab government today gave approval to the cash award policy for sportspersons from the state who excel in international and national competitions.

This decision was taken in the meeting of the Council of Ministers held here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh Under this policy, the government has decided to provide cash award to prominent sportspersons in 29 sports disciplines of aquatics (swimming, water polo, diving and synchronised swimming), archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoeing and kayaking, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastic (including rhythmic gymnastic), handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, softball, table tennis, tae-kwon-do, tennis, triathlon, volleyball (including beach volleyball), wrestling (free style and Greco Roman), weightlifting and cricket.

This approval was given to encourage sportspersons to attain higher achievements and to adopt sports as a career. He further informed that under the category of individual events, the cash prize money would be Rs one crore for gold medal winners, Rs 50 lakh for silver and Rs 25 lakh for bronze medal winners in Olympic Games.

For official World Cup/ championships (held after every four years) the award would be Rs 21 lakh, Rs 11 lakh and Rs 7 lakh for gold, silver and bronze medal winners respectively.

In the case of Asian or Commonwealth Games, it would be Rs 7 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh for gold, silver and bronze medal winners respectively. Likewise Rs 5 lakh, Rs three lakh and Rs 2 lakh had been approved for the gold, silver and bronze medal winners respectively in the World Cup/Asian Championship (held every year or every two years).

The cash prize money would be Rs 3 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh for gold, silver and bronze medal winners respectively in case of National Games/Afro Asian Games/SAF games. In case of handicapped games (in any international event) the cash prize would be Rs 5 lakh for gold, Rs 3 lakh for silver and Rs 2 lakh for bronze medal winners.

For team events, the prize money would be divided amongst the total number of team members (including reserves). In junior category championships, the players would get 50 percent of the above amounts.

According to the decision by the Cabinet the cash awards would be given only to the medal winners. There would be no award for a player who breaks a world/national record but fails to win a medal.

UNI HS DH HT1522