Tennis players get their dues
The Sports Ministry on Saturday stated it has cleared all the outstanding bills of top Indian tennis players for two years, amounting to Rs 1 crore, and the All India Tennis Association (AITA) will receive it on Monday.
The Sports Ministry on Saturday stated it has cleared all the outstanding bills of top Indian tennis players for two years, amounting to Rs 1 crore, and the All India Tennis Association (AITA) will receive it on Monday. Giving the breakup of money, Sports Ministry's Joint Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar said the bills of five tennis players - Leander Paes (Rs 19.26 lakh), Mahesh Bhupathi ( Rs. 19.62 lakh), Rohan Bopanna (Rs. 18.33 lakh), Somdev Devvarman (Rs. 25.88 lakh) and the lone woman player Sania Mirza (Rs. 17.52 lakh) - for the tournaments in 2009-10 and 2010-11 have been cleared.
"We have been funding the 17 Games disciplines, it is just that the AITA did not submit the bills for a long time. We advised them to put their house on order and once they submitted the bills, we reimbursed the money within a week's time,"Bhatnagar said.
"The funds have been sanctioned for preparation of the Indian Team for the Games. We can reimburse travel only in the economy class and $100 per day for their stay, provided it has been not sponsored and for 75 days each year. We have reimbursed their bills of two years.”
Paes, Bhupathi, Bopanna and Devvarman had aired their concerns in a letter to AITA, which was leaked to the media. The players said they would not commit to the CWG if their dues were not cleared.