No State-level event for CWG-18 winners

After being snubbed by the Commonwealth Games-2018 winners from the State once, the Haryana Government has decided not to organise a State-level event to honour the winning sportpersons.

Now, Samman Samarohs at district-level will be organised in the State where the CWG-18 winners will be felicitated by the concerned deputy commissioners.

22 sportspersons of Haryana had won medals in the XXI Commonwealth Games-2018 held at Gold Coast, Australia this year which is 33 per cent of the total medals won by the country. The sportspersons from Haryana won nine gold medal, six silver medal and seven bronze medals in the Commonwealth Games.

Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, Anil Vij, while talking to the mediapersons on Tuesday said that all sportspersons who won medals in the Commonwealth Games would be honoured at Samman Samarohs to be organised in the districts.

All such players would be given full amount of cash prize without any deduction and a proposal in this regard has already been approved by the Chief Minister Manohar Lal. All Deputy Commissioners have been directed to organise functions to honour sportspersons of their respective districts, said Vij.

Earlier, Haryana Government had to cancel its April 26 felicitation function for the states CWG medal winners following threats of boycott from the top athletes over the proposed cut in their prize money.

Top athletes such as gold medalists wrestler Vinesh Phogat (women’s free style), javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, wrestler Bajrang Punia, bronze medallist Manoj Kumar among others had hinted at boycotting the event over the government’s proposed cut in the prize money.

At that time, it was announced by the government that as per the sports policy, in case of athletes who represent institutions such as the Army or Railways and are given cash prizes by them, the Haryana Government would deduct the amount given by the institution from their stated cash award.

The government’s move, which was severely criticized by the sportspersons and opposition parties, was to affect a total of 13 of the 22 CWG winners.

As per the sports policy, the gold medal winning sportsperson of the state would be given class-A government job alongwith Rs 1.50 crore as award money.

Similarly, the silver medal winners would be given class-B government job with award money of Rs one crore and bronze medal winners would be given class-C government job and Rs 50 lakh as award money.