Haryana CM Hooda honours CWG medalists

SONEPAT: Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday announced a slew of incentives for the medal winners from the state in Commonwealth Games that concluded in Delhi last month.On the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the formation ofHaryana, Hooda said that he would enhance the cash award for medal winners fromthe state in this month's Asian Games and also announced the creation of a'Haryana Sportspersons Development Fund'.The chief minister wasaddressing a gathering at Motilal Nehru School of Sports at Rai where "Chak deHaryana, Chak de India" rally was organized to felicitate the medal winners andathletes from Haryana in the recently concluded CommonwealthGames.The Haryana players had won 37 medals out of a total of 101India had won in the Delhi Games. To add to it, half of the 38 gold medals wonby India were grabbed by sportspersons from Haryana.Enthused withthe success of Haryana athletes in the CWG, the chief minister honoured themedallist with cash awards of Rs 15 lakh, 10 lakh and 5 lakh to the gold, silverand bronze medallists respectively and also announced cash rewards for theupcoming Asian Games.He said cash award of Rs 25 lakh will be givento the athletes of Haryana who will win gold in the Asian Games while the silverand bronze medallists would get Rs 15 lakh and the Rs 10 lakhrespectively.Further motivating the Haryana athletes, Hooda saidcash awards of Rs two crore, Rs one crore and Rs 50 lakh will be given to thoseplayers of the state who will win gold, silver and bronze medal respectively in2012 London Olympics.He also announced that an amount of Rs 51 lakh,Rs 31 lakh, Rs 21 lakh and Rs 11 lakh will be granted for taking up developmentworks in the villages of the gold, silver, bronze medal winners of CWGrespectively.Hooda also said that he would provide suitable jobs tothe medal winners.The chief minister said the Central Bank of Indiahas also announced cash rewards of Rs five lakh, Rs three lakh and Rs one lakheach to the gold, silver and bronze medals winners of the state inCWG.He also announced the setting up of a 'Haryana SportsDevelopment Fund' (HSDF) to meet immediate requirements of training andequipments of the sportspersons of the state, which will also take care ofplayers' insurance.Founder President of Amity University, Dr AshokChauhan, who was also present, said that he would contribute Rs 10 crore for theHSDF.Hooda also announced that sports academies would be set up indifferent districts for different disciplines.New academies would beset up at Jind (Kabaddi), Rohtak (atheletics), Shahbad (women's hockey), Sirsa(men's hockey), Faridabad (shooting) Sonepat (wrestling) and Panchkula (lawntennis and badminton).Work is already in progress for setting up acricket academy at Jhajjar, boxing academy at Bhiwani, football academy atGurgaon and basketball academy at Kiloi in Rohtak district, hesaid.Hundred more rural stadiums will be constructed and new coacheswill be appointed there, he added.Besides, the chief minister saidthat mats for wrestling and other equipment would be provided at all stadia atthe cost of Rs five crore.Hooda further said that Regional SportsDevelopment Center (RSDC) would be opened at each commissionery - Gurgaon,Hisar, Ambala and Rohtak - where multi-disciplinary sports infrastructure andhostel facility will be provided to the players.At state levelprogramme all the players belonging to the state, who were part of the Indiancontingent in CWG but could not win medals, were also awarded with cash prizesof Rs two lakh each.Besides, the medal winners of CWG were presentedMaruti Cars, pure Ghee and mobile phones.The gold medallists werehonoured with SX4 cars, while silver and bronze medal winners were gifted SwiftDzire and WagonR.Chief Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki CompanyShinzo Nakanishi was also present in the function.The coaches of theCWG medalists from the state were also awarded with cash prizes of Rs threelakh, two lakh and one lakh each.The total cash awards given away byHooda to the medallists, coaches and the participants from the state in the CWGamounted to Rs 5.34 crore.The awardees of gold medal who were honoured were Geeta, Anita, Yogeshwar Dutt, Rajinder, Sushil Kumar, Ravinder, Sanjay, Anil, Anisa Sayyed, Harpreet Singh, Annuraj Singh, Manoj, Paramjit Samota, Krishna Punia, Saina Nehwal and Gagan Narang.Silver medalawardees honoured on the occasion were Nirmala Devi, Babita, Manoj, DeepakSharma, Sandeep Singh, Sardara Singh, Bharat Chikkara andJoginder.The bronze medal winners who were felicitated were Suman Kundu, Anil Kumar, Parshanta Karmakar, Dharmendra Dalal, Jai Bhagwan, Dilbag, Vijender Singh and Seema Antil.The awards of badminton player Saina Nehawal and boxer Vijender Singh were received by their fathers Dr Harvir Singh and Mahipal Singh respectively.Rest of the participant's fromHaryana who failed to win any medal were also bestowed with cash awards.