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Cash crunch puts brakes on incentive awards

By K. P. Mohan

NEW DELHI JUNE 14. After all the hoopla about the millions that the sportspersons were supposed to rake in for their medal-winning performances at the last Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, the Union Sports Ministry has found that it does not have the money to meet the requirements. Not immediately at least.

Amidst the unprecedented haul at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, where India bagged 69 medals (excluding those stripped of weightlifters Krishnan Madasamy and Satisha Rai for doping offences), the then Union Sports Minister, Uma Bharti, had announced a whopping hike in cash awards for the medal winners. From the original Rs 5 lakhs for a gold, the cash award for first place had become Rs 20 lakhs.

When the contingent returned home, the women's hockey team was granted an unexpected bonus by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee. When the team called on him, the Prime Minister agreed that each member of the team may be given Rs 10 lakhs.

Thus, from the Commonwealth Games alone, the cash award scheme had to meet a demand for around Rs 13 crores. The Finance Ministry's original allocation was for Rs 9 crores under the whole incentive awards scheme.

However, since it is not uncommon for projected figures to escalate, it was felt that the Sports Ministry's requirements would be met. For example, the previous year, the Finance Minister had put Rs 1.80 crore for incentive awards while the Government actually ended up paying Rs 7.5 crores.

Immediately after the Manchester Games it was announced that the Busan Asian Games medal winners would also be given increased cash awards.

India ended up with 37 medals from the Asiad, including the two medals restored to Sunita Rani who was initially stripped of her medals on a doping charge.

Saddled with a demand that it could not meet immediately from the allocations, the Sports Ministry has written to individual medal winners that they were to be paid according to the previous pattern, that of Rs 5 lakhs (gold), Rs 3 lakhs (silver) and Rs 2 lakhs (bronze).

The rest of the promised money would be paid, it was explained, at a later date when the necessary approval and funds would be received from the Finance Ministry. For the time being there was to be no function to present the awards, as is the normal practice.

The news should be a great disappointment to sportspersons who were expecting to take home huge sums. For example, shooters Jaspal Rana and Anjali Vedpathak were expected to carry more than Rs. 77.5 lakh each for their feats at the Manchester Games. They will now take much less.

The sportspersons are unsure whether the promised amount would be given eventually or whether the old scheme would stand. Many had planned to build houses while some were expecting to utilise the money for further training and expert guidance abroad. Some even had taken loans for trips abroad, keeping the incentive awards in mind.

The whole incentive scheme will come under review once again before India embarks on another Olympic Games or Asian Games. Ms. Bharti had announced an award of Rs 1 crore for an Olympic gold last year and though that might look an appropriate incentive for a medal that has become all too elusive for the country in the Olympic arena, many sports administrators and critics have wondered how Commonwealth Games medals were being equated with those won at the Asian Games. In many disciplines, the Commonwealth standards are nowhere comparable to Asian levels.

Incidentally, All England champion P. Gopi Chand has not been given the increased award money that he was promised after his epochal triumph in 2001. Ms. Bharti had stated then that his achievement was being equated with an Olympic gold and he would be given Rs 15 lakhs. The bureaucrats would not agree.

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