No dearth of funds for sports: Col Rathore

There is no dearth of funds for sports, said Union Sports Minister Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore on Monday.

He was speaking at a function to felicitate to Commonwealth Games medal winners with cash rewards.

Terming sports as a soft power, Rathore said, "We don't fund any of the soft powers such as films, cuisine and culture but we fund you. There is no dearth of funds for sports but every penny has to be used to its optimum."

He said that sportspersons are ambassadors of the country, role models of the youth and every Indian feels proud of them.

"Our sportspersons have amazing capacity to do well in every sport and not just in skill based games," Rathore said.

Sharing his experience as a sportsman, Col Rathore advised the sportspersons to concentrate on their game despite distractions.

"There will not be a time when there are no distractions or limitations but we have to learn to concentrate and try to overcome them. The whole journey of sportsmen is in close co-ordination with Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Ministry of Sports and Sports Ministry team is committed to resolve all the issues," he added.

The Minister asked them to justify with logic their demands and act responsibly.

He told the sportspersons the accolades will not last forever whereas the love for the game will.

About 56 sportspersons from 9 sports disciplines including Mary Kom, Mirabai Chanu, Neeraj Chopra, Sumit Mallik, Sushil Kumar, Vinesh Phogat, Rahul Aware, Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Deepika Pallikal , Sourav Ghosal, Vikas Krishan, Gaurav Solanki, Manu Bhaker, Jitu Rai, Tejaswini Sawant, Heena Sidhu, Manika Batra and others were felicitated with cash awards at the function. Roughly each of the gold medal winner received cash award of Rs 30 lakh whereas the silver winners were given Rs 20 lakh each and bronze winners were awarded Rs 10 lakh.