Chief Minister Raman Singh on Thursday said that Chhattisgarh’s players with dedication and desire to achieve their goals have reached national and international level sporting meets.
However, now they should set higher target of bagging Olympic medals to receive the Rs 2 crore, Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 1 crore award for winning Gold, Silver and Bronze medal in sporting meets respectively announced by the State Government.
He was addressing as chief guest of the State Sports Award Decoration Ceremony organised at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Auditorium in Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College premises here.
The State government had instituted the award to help players with poor financial background, Singh said.
The Government has also reserved two per cent of government jobs for the outstanding players of the State, the Chief Minister said.
He said that the daily allowance for diet of sports persons had been hiked from Rs 100 to Rs 300 per player and other such demands through a proposal would also be considered, he said.
Chhattisgarh is creating necessary infrastructure as part of hosting the National Games in the State. A series of sports infrastructure both outdoor and indoor at State, District and Block level is being constructed. The State will have 16 indoor stadiums, the Chief Minister said.
Earlier, Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Bhaiyyalal Rajwade in his address said that already synthetic turf hockey stadiums at Raipur, Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur have come up and now another one is under construction at Jashpur.
The State has also developed synthetic athletic track. New State Sports Policy has also been put in place, he said.
Apart from the sports awards mainly Shaheed Rajiv Pandey Award, Shaheed Kaushal Yadav
Award, Shaheed Pankaj Vikram Award and Shaheed Vinod Choubey Samman, this year people registering special contribution for sports were felicitated. They are Rahul Gupta for scaling Mount Everest, Chief-de-Mission of Indian team to Commonwealth Games Vikram Singh
Sisodia, Olympian Renuka Yadav’s trainer Bushan Sao, Kondagaon ITBP Commandant SS Khatri and Head Constable Trilochan Singh Mahato for promoting sports in Naxal areas, Bashir Ahmed Khan for service to sports sector, for construction of sports infrastructure Deputy Inspector General of Police Akbar Ram Korram and Ramakrishna Mission, Vivekananda Vidyapeeth Narayanpur for training tribal youth in sports.