Govt doubles cash incentive for sports winners
Delhi Government on Sunday announced that it has doubled the cash incentive for the players winning medals in international, national and State tournaments in all sports and there will be liberal allocation of funds for promotion of games. lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung said allocation of funds will be doubled in this year and will be further increased in the coming years.
He also directed the Department of Education (DoE) to prepare a vision and a strategy to promote sports at mass level across the city and to produce sporting champions in every game.
“Delhi Government has doubled the cash incentives to the players bringing laurels to the country in various international tournaments, including the Olympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and other international tournaments. Besides this, the incentives are also being provided to the medal winners in national, State and zonal level tournaments. The cash incentives varies from Rs 2,000 for zonal level medal winner to Rs 1 crore for Olympics gold medal winner sports person,” a release said.
Cash incentives are being provided in 24 categories of sport events. The Government has also decided to give cash incentive to coaches of sportspersons who bring laurels to the country. Jung said appointment of Olympic gold medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar as the brand ambassador of Delhi will act as a catalyst and motivate sportspersons of Delhi and will turn them into champions and medal winning athletes.
The sports infrastructure created in the national Capital for Commonwealth Games, 2010 is being optimally utilised for the purpose of promotion of sports, he said. The release said that DoE is working on a three-fold vision: grooming and nurturing the talented players, identification of the talent of upcoming student players and broad-basing of sports at mass level.
To achieve the targets, the Directorate has taken every possible step - each and every student has been asked to play at least one sport compulsorily at the school level. All schools have been asked to prepare at least two teams, compulsorily, for participating at the zonals. Each and every zone has been asked to compulsorily participate in inter-zonal sports tourneys. The grant-in-aid is being given to the Delhi State sports associations for promotion of sports and games in Delhi. It said that the Government has started providing funds at the grass roots level for promotion of sports.
Allocation of funds at the zonal level has been enhanced more than two-fold from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per year for undertaking zonal sports activities. Similarly, allocation of funds to each school for procuring sports material has also been doubled. The department provides ultra-modern sports equipment and sports material to the student players. Each Delhi team is provided ultra-modern sports kit whenever it goes to participate in any national or international level sports meet. A number of coaching camps during summer vacation and subsequently, throughout the year are organised for excellence in sports. The Directorate takes care of sports injuries and sports medicines of the players. Specialised coaching sessions by experts in various disciplines are arranged. Seminars are arranged for the players to have overall knowledge of the rules and regulations of the sports disciplines - anti-doping measures to be adopted and gender sensitisation issues in sports.