In order to improve Gujarat’s performance in sports, the State Government on Sunday announced Rs 5 crore cash prize for the player who would win Gold medal in the Olympics.
Forget Olympic Games, even in Asian Games no Gujarat player has been able to win a single medal yet. The announcement came as a motivation for the budding sportspersons and their parents as the Government has also decided to give cash prizes of Rs 3 crore and Rs 2 crore to Silver and Bronze medal winners respectively in the Olympic Games.
“The initiative of the State Government will have long-term impact to encourage young boys and girls to take sports as a career. The Gujarat Government is also working on full-fledged Sports University, which would boost the sports related activities in the State,” said Bhagyesh Jha, secretary for Sports & Cultural activities in the Gujarat Government while confirming the development.
The cash prizes are not limited to the Olympic Games, the State Government has also decided to give Rs 2 crore reward to Gold medalist in Asian Games too. For the Silver and Bronze medalists of the Asian Games, there would be provision of cash prizes worth Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh respectively.
For the Gold medalist in Commonwealth Games, the State Government has decided to give Rs 1 crore cash prize. In the case of Silver and Bronze medals the winner in GWG events would get Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh.
In national games and senior national championships, individual Gujarat player who wins gold will get Rs 3 lakh, silver Rs 2 lakh and bronze Rs 1 lakh. In national-level group games be it senior-junior any of both category, first winner team’s each player will get Rs 75,000, second number team’s each player will get Rs 50,000 while third number team’s each player will get Rs 25,000.
Besides, the State Government has also decided to give scholarship of Rs 5,000 to players of 21 different sports to encourage players. It is worth mentioning that two Gujarat players Anshul Kothari and lajja Goswami could win medals in Commonwealth Games in Swimming and Shooting events.
