Chandigarh, June 13
A large number of Punjabi players will represent the state in the Paris Olympic Games to be held next month. The fruitful results of the new sports policy made under the guidelines of Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann have started to emerge and under the new policy, the players participating in the Olympics will be given Rs 15 lakh per player for preparation. The Gold, Silver and Bronze medal-winning Punjabi players in the Olympics will get cash prizes of Rs 3 Cr, Rs 2 Cr and Rs 1 Cr respectively. It was stated by the State Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer in a press statement issued here today.
During a meeting with the officials of the Sports departments at the Punjab Civil Secretariat today, Meet Hayer said that the preparation money should be released to the Punjabi players going to the Olympics. He said that so far six shooters from Punjab have been selected for the Olympics, while a larger number of Punjabi players in Hockey, Shooting and Athletics remain to be selected as all the national teams have not been announced yet. He said that like the record made by Punjabi players winning medals and participating in the Asian Games last year, the record of Punjabi players going to participate in the Olympic Games will also be set this time. He said that Punjab will again become the pioneer state of the country in sports.
Meet Hayer said that the work of establishing Sports Nurseries was going on in the state. Similarly, the construction of sports infrastructure to create sports culture in the villages and towns of the state is also under progress. He asked the officials to speed up this work.
The meeting was attended by Special Chief Secretary Sports Saravjit Singh, Special Secretary Anand Kumar, XEN Sanjay Mahajan, Deputy Director Parminder Singh and Assistant Director Ranbir Singh Bhangu.
