Function to award Haryana sportspersons cancelled

The Haryana government has scrapped a state-level function to award sportspersons and decided to transfer the cash prize directly into their accounts.

The function, scheduled to be held in Panchkula on Monday, was planned to give away cash prizes worth Rs 90 crore to about 3,000 sportspersons who have won medals in national and international competitions.

Sports Minister Anil Vij, who had given details about the event 10 days ago, on Sunday explained the reason behind cancelling the function.

"Nearly 3,000 players were to be honoured and it was not possible to do so in a day," Vij told reporters. "Therefore, we felt rather than postponing the event, it was more appropriate to deposit money into their bank accounts."

Last August, the Haryana government had cancelled a function to felicitate the state's Commonwealth Games medal winners following a possibility of boycott by top athletes over a proposed cut in prize money.

 

The move to cancel the Panchkula function evoked strong reaction from the Opposition.

"The BJP government has not found time in the past 4 years to honour the players," the Jannayak Janta Party tweeted.

"The outstanding players who brought laurels in various events during past three years were to be honoured at state-level function in Panchkula, but that function has now been cancelled. Is this how the players will get encouraged?," it asked.

Athletes who have won medals at Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Asian Para Games during the years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 were to be honoured in the function. The sportspersons of senior and junior categories, who could not be honoured previously due to certain reasons, were also to be honoured in the function.