Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday inaugurated 82nd National Table Tennis Championships-2020 at Tau Devi Lal Sports Stadium, in Sector-3
Deputy Chief Minister and President, Table Tennis Federation of India and Haryana Table Tennis Association, Dushyant Chautala, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gian Chand Gupta were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the players at the inauguration ceremony, Khattar said that it is a matter of great pride that this time the National Table Tennis Championships-2020 is being organized in Panchkula district. He said that this year Haryana has also got the opportunity to organize Khelo India Games-2021, in which about 12,000 players from different states of the country will participate.
He said a prize amount of Rs. 6 crore is being given by the State Government for winning the gold medal in the Olympics. Apart from this, along with prize money in other sports, jobs in Class-I, Class-II and Class-III category are given on the basis of sports achievements of the players. Along with this, 10 percent reservation is given to players in class IV jobs too.
Recently in a bid to encourage sportspersons, the State Government has also decided to give an amount of Rs. 5 lakh for diet, training and capacity building to the sportspersons who have qualified in the Olympics. This decision would certainly prove beneficial for players who are financially weak, said the Chief Minister.
Dushyant Chautala said that in the last four years, the work of every single employee, coach and players of the Federation has resulted in promotion of table tennis in the State. He said in a bid to encourage National and International Level Table Tennis Players, UTT League is organized on the similar lines of IPL. As a result, India won eight medals in the Table Tennis category in Commonwealth-2018, which is a historic achievement. Apart from this, the Indian players, while performing well in the Asian Games, had won three medals for the country and this victory league is still going on. He said that there are seven such women players in the country, who have become champions at different levels in India in table tennis.