Hry medal winners to be honoured

The Commonwealth Games-2018 medal winners from Haryana will be honoured at district level Independence Day functions to be held on August 15.

22 sportspersons of Haryana had won medals in the XXI Commonwealth Games-2018 held at Gold Coast, Australia earlier 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.

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

Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, Anil Vij on Monday said that  the medal winners of Commonwealth Games and other events would be honoured at district level Independence Day functions.

He said that there would be no better occasion than this to honour these sportspersons. Directions have been issued to make all necessary arrangements, Vij said.

Notably, the State 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criticized by the sportspersons and opposition parties, was to affect a total of 13 of the 22 CWG winners and was withdrawn later.

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

Similarly, the silver medal winners would be given class-B Government job with award money of `1 crore and bronze medal winners would be given class-C Government job and `50 lakh as award money.

The Minister also said that jobs would be provided to about 300 sportspersons under sports quota. For this, names would be forwarded to Departments concerned which would finalize the recruitment process. A notification in this regard would soon be issued and advertisement would be released so that each sportsperson could get equal opportunity, he added.

Vij said that sportspersons affected during the tenure of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would also get equal opportunity because jobs and other facilities were given on facial value during the Congress tenure.