The cancellation of an event to honour the sports persons by the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana has kicked off a major row. After opposition parties lashed out at the BJP led Haryana Government for insulting the sports persons, renowned wrestlers have now hit out at the government for cut in cash reward given to them for winning international medals.
Top wrestlers Sushil Kumar, Bajrang Punia, Yogeshwar Dutt, and Vinesh Phogat on Wednesday slammed the government and termed the decision to cut prize award as “disappointing and discouraging” for the sportspersons.
The State Government was already under severe criticism for cancelling the state level function scheduled to be held on June 24 to honour sportspersons of Haryana. The award function was to be held on Monday at Panchkula to give away cash prizes worth Rs 90 crore to about 3,000 sportspersons who had won medals in national and international competitions.
Instead of rewarding the sportspersons in public, the State Government had decided to transfer the cash prize directly into their accounts.
Now, some of the players have claimed that they got reduced amount in their accounts. Haryana Sports Minister Anil Vij, however, said that there was no cut in prize money and the players can contact the Department concerned in case of any grievances.
Bajrang Punia, the Asian Games 2018 gold medalist on Wednesday criticized the government's decision to curtail the winning amount of the sportsperson, adding that it needs to be re-evaluated.
“When you promise rewards to players, at that time it is not the promise of financial incentives you make to them, but of standing solidly behind them. If you cannot stand on your promise, then in future what expectation a player can have from you,” Punia said in a tweet while attaching news clipping of Rs 3 crore reward money announced for him in the past.
Coming in support of Punia, two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar said players do a lot of hard work and they should be felicitated to set a good example among the budding athletes.
“Haryana sports policy set the benchmark earlier on how to treat the athletes. I would like to say that the government should hold a ceremony to felicitate the athletes,” he said.
“We should all stand in solidarity with the national level athlete," he said while reacting to the statement of Punia. Another wrestler Vinesh Phogat was more vocal, asking the Haryana Government to take back their prize money.
“I request the Haryana Government to take back your money. Don't let the players stand on your political arena and humiliate them," Phogat said in a tweet.
"On one hand our Prime Minister says that country will move ahead if we make progress in sports. And on the other hand is Haryana government which is doing politics in sports and leaving no opportunity to finish the sports," she said in another tweet.
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat had won the 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games gold in 50 kg.
2012 Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt said the “cut in prize money of players is quite unfortunate”. “They should be told the reason behind the prize cut,” he tweeted.“Players bring laurels and make the state and country proud and their morale should be increased so that they can win more medals in future," he added.
The assertions of the sportspersons came in the wake of government’s revised sports policy 2018 that says that “in case a sportsperson wins more than one medal during a financial year, he/she will receive full award money for the highest medal and at least 50 per cent of the award money for the second and the subsequent medals.”
The sportspersons alleged that the reduced prize money means that the government has failed to fulfill its promises.
Responding to the allegations of the sportspersons, Haryana Sports Minister Anil Vij on Wednesday said that the rewards are given as per the revised sports policy that has been in force.
Vij said, "Haryana gives highest reward money to its players. There has been no cut in prize money.”
“The prizes have been given in accordance with our sports policy. We have clearly mentioned in the citation that if any player finds any discrepancy in the prize-money, he/she can approach us,” he said while talking to the mediapersons. About cancellation of the felicitation ceremony, he said that awarding prizes to 3,000 athletes wasn't possible in a day, so the government decided to cancel it and instead transfer the cash award directly into the accounts of sportspersons.
Athletes who have won medals at Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Asian Para Games during the years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 were to be honoured in the function at Panchkula. The sportspersons of senior and junior categories, who could not be honoured previously due to certain reasons, were also to be honoured at the function. Apart from June 24 event this year, the State Government had last year cancelled another state level function to felicitate the state's Commonwealth Games medal winners following a possibility of boycott by top athletes over a proposed cut in prize money.