Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
All India Council of Sports,(AICS) president Vijay Kumar Malhotra on Friday urged the States , to formulate uniform Award Scheme to do away with the glaring disparity in Cash Awards.
In a letter to the Chief Ministers of concerned states Prof Malhotra pointed out the cash award Profdisparity after the Asian Games, in which India bagged record medal haul by 69 medals-g 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze.
Mentioning the huge disparity, Prof Malhotra wrote “While one State Govt is rewarding its gold medal winners with Rs.3.00 crores each, the neighbouring State is offering merely Rs.26.00 lakhs for each of gold medal. The total pay-out for 20 medal winners from one State including four gold medallists comes out to just Rs.3.00 crores. This equals to individual awards given by another State for its Gold medal winners in the Asian Games.” d
He pointed out that the disparity becomes deep when one State Govt. announces mere Rs.10.00 lakhs and a Govt. job to India’s first ever Heptathlon Champion in the Asian Games while its neighbouring State announced a cash award of Rs.3.00 crores for its Sprinter i.e. Rs.1.50 crores for each silver medal she won in the Asian Games.
He said that an athlete from states like Delhi, UP, Maharashtra, Haryana or others have to attain the same level of excellence to be the Asian Champion. However, when it comes to recognition and rewards for these athletes, there is a distinct disparity from State to State within the country”.
The athletes who train, stay and gel together are eventually separated by their respective State sports policies. When it comes to rewarding the athletes for their hard work and spectacular performance, disparity leaves some of the achievers disappointed.
A bronze Medallist from one benevolent state has more worth in monetary terms than the gold medal winner in another state just because the athlete happens to be from a state which does not consider worthwhile to honour its athlete.he said
Prof. Malhotra appealed to the Chief Ministers of the States from where these sportspersons hail to reconsider their decision to give cash awards to their athletes and amend the State Sports Policy to bring the Cash Awards at par with that of Govt. of Haryana with assured Govt. job in Category `A’.
In a separate letter to the chief minister of Bengal, Prof Malhotra appealed to her to raise the cash award to Swapna Burman who became the first Indian Woman to win the Heptathlon Gold Medal in the Asian Games .
He appealed her to follow the Cash Award pattern of Haryana.