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Draft of sports policy ready, Chandigarh all set to give Olympic gold medallists ₹6 crore
Once implemented, players will also be eligible for 2% reservation in jobs under sports quota and other benefits. Chandigarh will also focus on optimum utilisation of its existing resources, setting up a centre for rehabilitation and recovery of injured players, and nurturing talent from the school-level, as part of the policy.
In a major boost to sportspersons in Chandigarh, the UT administration has finalised the draft for its long-pending sports policy, which envisages cash awards to the tune of ₹6 crore for Olympics gold medallists, ₹4 crore for silver medallists and ₹2.5 crore for bronze medallists.
Once implemented, players will also be eligible for 2% reservation in jobs under sports quota and other benefits. Chandigarh will also focus on optimum utilisation of its existing resources, setting up a centre for rehabilitation and recovery of injured players, and nurturing talent from the school-level, as part of the policy.
A UT official said that the draft is ready and the administration is in the process of seeking suggestions from stakeholders. “We are hopeful of implementing the policy by the end of January, next year,” said the official.
The sports policy has been a long-pending demand of players from Chandigarh, who often found themselves receiving the short-end of the stick as compared to their counterparts in Punjab and Haryana. The absence of a sports policy meant, Chandigarh sportspersons were left waiting for jobs and cash awards despite bringing laurels to the city. Punjab and Haryana, however, reward their players handsomely, and also keep enhancing the prizes from time to time, which keeps the players’ morale high.
This also led to a talent-drain from the city.
“As there are no jobs or cash prizes in Chandigarh, most players prefer to play for Haryana or Punjab,” reveals Gurminder Singh, a hockey coach at Sector 42 stadium.
He further said, “Despite having a good sports infrastructure, children here are hardly drawn towards sports.”
UT had started formulating its sports policy in 2019, however, due to the pandemic, it could not be finalised until now.
Stating that UT will be reviewing the cash awards from time-to-time, a senior official of the UT administration said, “We will be looking at the sum being awarded by Punjab and Haryana; whichever state is paying more, we will match up to it.”
Currently, Haryana’s cash award is higher.
UT adviser Dharam Pal said, “We have a massive sports infrastructure in the city, but it is largely underutilised. With the policy in place, we will be focussing on drawing more talent into sports and nurturing budding sportspersons from the school-level itself. All issues of junior and senior players have been addressed in the new policy, and even the issue of cash awards and jobs has been streamlined.”
He further said, “As part of the new policy, we have created a new system, under which the sports department can keep tabs on the players’ achievements and medals, and award them accordingly.”
