311 meritorious sportsmen finally get cash prizes totalling Rs 4 crore
Chandigarh, August 29
After a long wait, the UT Administration finally awarded city’s top meritorious sportspersons, who bagged laurels at international and national level, on the occasion of the National Sports Day. For the first time in the recent past, as many as 311 international and national achievers from the city were awarded cash prizes totalling approximately Rs 4 crore at the Punjab Raj Bhawan.
A total of 15 players were awarded the cash awards by Gulab Chand Kataria, Administrator, Chandigarh, while the others received the amount online. Kataria congratulated all players, their coaches and family members, but the coaches’ achievements remained missing from the cash awards list. The policy for awarding the local coaches is yet to see the light of the day.
Kataria said, “Sports can bind society together. If you want to eliminate the differences of caste and religion, then send the child to the sports field, where no religion is considere,”
The Administrator gave special mention of the Khelo India Games, under which over 3,000 athletes were receiving financial assistance of Rs 50,000 per month.
The event was attended by K Siva Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary to Governor, Punjab; Hargunjit Kaur, Finance Secretary; Hari Kallikat, Secretary Sports; Sorabh Arora, Director Sports, and others.
While many sportspersons attended the event, Gurjant Singh and Sanjay, who were part of the Indian hockey team that won the bronze medal in the recent Paris Olympics, didn’t attend the function owing to scheduled assignments for the Indian hockey team.
