Bonanza awaits Karnataka chess stars?

BENGALURU: Chess players are set to get a boost with the Karnataka government planning to formulate new guidelines to honour top achievements in the sport including earning Grandmaster titles.
Reacting to concerns of the chess fraternity that the state government was yet to honour its three GMs -MS Thej Kumar, Stany GA and Girish Koushik, the latest to join the elite club - officials said efforts were on to honour the top achievers.
It is learnt that the proposal is to announce a prize money of Rs 10 lakh or more to the three GMs. "The final call will be taken by the government shortly but the suggestion is to constitute a cash award of Rs 10 lakh or more," sources told TOI.
"Till now there were no guidelines to announce cash awards for winning the Grandmaster title. Now that three state players have achieved the prestigious title, a proposal has been sent to the government to announce cash awards for winning the GM title," sources said.
"There is a possibility that the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) may arrange a special function to honour the three chess players. If the proposal gets delayed then the state's GMs could be honoured together with the Ekalavya and other sports award winners," they said.
Sources in the ministry also said that all the cash award to athletes who have won medals at the in Asiad and Commonwealth Games have been cleared. "The money will be directly transferred to their bank accounts. It would take 7-14 days," officials said. "What is pending is the cash awards for winning at national and international meets in 2016-17. These too will be given away soon," sources said.
Meanwhile, the DYES has invited applications for this year's Ekalavya and Kreeda Ratna awards. These awards were not given away last year though the list was ready. "The plan now is to give away last year's awards too at this year's function," they added.