The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma, recalled the thrill when he heard about Saina Nehwal winning the last gold medal for India and helping it finish second in the medals table in the Commonwealth Games, as he felicitated the medallists at a function here on Monday.
“I was away in Kenya and was following the medals count. We were thrilled to hear that badminton player Saina Nehwal had won that gold and taken India to the second spot,” said Anand Sharma. On behalf of Saina, her father, Dr. Harvir Singh received the award.
The felicitation was organised by Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), State Trading Corporation (STC), and Project Equipment Corporation (PEC). Each gold medal winner was presented Rs.7.5 lakh, silver medallists Rs. 5 lakh and bronze medallists Rs. 3.5 lakh.
The Indian men's hockey team that won the silver was presented a cash award of Rs. 16 lakh, and the Indian women's 4x400 metre relay team was presented Rs. 8 lakh.
While triple gold medallists Vijay Kumar and Omkar Singh were there for the function, along with the athletes, boxers, archers, table tennis players, gymnast Ashish Kumar and a few others could not reach on time for the function despite it starting late by more than an hour.
Some of the prominent medallists were on their way from another function in Haryana. The Haryana governement in collaboration with Maruti Suzuki had honoured the medal winners from the State by presenting 32 cars for the gold, silver and bronze medallists respectively. There were 17 gold, seven silver and eight bronze medallists from the State.
The Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda handed over the car keys to the proud medallists on Haryana Divas, at Rai.
