Punjab honours 1,070 athletes, clears sports awards backlog with Rs 32cr payout

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday honoured 1,070 medal-winning athletes and 87 recipients of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award from 2019 to 2023, while distributing prize money worth ₹32 crore and announcing a major expansion of the state's sports infrastructure.At a felicitation ceremony held at Municipal Bhawan here, Mann said the state govt had cleared a decade-long backlog of pending sports honours from 2018 onwards. Around 20 sportspersons received cheques during the event, while the remaining amount was transferred through direct benefit transfer (DBT).The chief minister said Punjab had allocated a record ₹1,763-crore sports budget for 2026-27 and was developing 3,148 rural sports grounds at a cost of ₹1,300 crore to strengthen grassroots sports. He also announced that Punjab would host the Asian Champions Trophy for the first time, with the India-Pakistan match scheduled on Punjab Day.Mann said the govt had honoured Olympic and Asian Games medallists with ₹1 crore each and provided jobs to nine players. He added that ₹8.61 crore had been given to 220 players for tournament preparation.Among the top awardees, Indian women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur and all-rounder Amanjot Kaur received ₹1.5 crore each. Shooters Amanpreet Singh and Neeraj Kumar were awarded ₹1.54 crore and ₹1.52 crore respectively, while Kirandeep Kaur and Kritika Sharma received ₹50 lakh each. Shooter Vijayveer Sidhu got ₹28.5 lakh, wushu player Kushal Kumar ₹25 lakh and para-powerlifting world champion Paramjit Kumar ₹55 lakh.Mann said Maharaja Ranjit Singh Awards were distributed across multiple yearly cycles. The 2018-19 awardees included Ramandeep Singh, Kiranjit Singh, Harwinder Kaur, Jaspreet Singh, Angad Veer Singh Bajwa, Pradeep Singh, Harpreet Singh and Chahat Arora.The 2020 cycle honoured Sangampreet Singh Bisla, Twinkle Choudhary, Veerpal, Amritpal Singh, Avtar Singh, Amarjit Singh, Ina Arora and Harjinder Singh, while the 2021 awardees included Sukhbeer Singh, Kirpal Singh, Amanjit Kaur Bains, Priyanka Devi, Naman Kapil, Udeveer Singh and Mandeep Kaur.The chief minister also honoured Olympic hockey players Harmanpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Mandeep Singh, Hardik Singh, Varun Kumar, Shamsher Singh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Dilpreet Singh. Simranjit Kaur Baath, Punjab's first female boxer to represent India at the Olympics, was also felicitated.Para-athletes honoured during the event included Mohammad Yaser, Vaibhav Rajoria, Surender Kamboj, Palak Kohli and Paramjit Kumar.Mann said Punjab had distributed ₹106.2 crore in prize money among sportspersons and para-athletes since 2022. He added that a separate "Outstanding Sportsperson" cadre had been created with 500 posts across disciplines, while recruitment of coaches, physical trainers and sports medicine staff was underway.He also virtually laid the foundation stone of a ₹43.66-crore Yuva Bhawan in Chandigarh's Sector 42.EndsMSID:: 131293102 413 |