The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has doubled the cash awards for medals, for both the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the Asian Games in Guangzhou.
Delivering a speech in the Conference of the State Ministers of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Union Sports Minister, M.S. Gill, announced on Tuesday that a gold medal would fetch Rs. 20 lakh, while a silver and bronze medal would be rewarded with Rs. 10 lakh and 6 lakh respectively.
“We have doubled the award for the medals. It will be for both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. We will see, for the future,” said Gill.
Even earlier, the then sports minister, Uma Bharati had got special clearance from the Prime Minister to give Rs. 20 lakh for a gold medal and proportionate awards for silver and bronze for the Indian sportspersons who won a rich haul in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. The cash awards were revised to their original rates subsequently.
Clean wins
Gill was categorical that India would love to win a lot of medals in the Commonwealth Games at home, but warned the athletes that it should be fair and clean.
“We do want a lot of medals, but even if we win one medal, we want it with honour”, said Gill.
Applauding the good work done by the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), Gill said that the lab had already tested 5000 samples this year, including 1500 for the Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore.
“We have to kill the abuse of dope. Justice will be done. Checking will be accurate and prompt. The National federations should start educating the athletes about doping”, he pleaded.
“Last year 3000 tests were done. The lab will test about 2500 samples for the Commonwealth Games. The rates are reasonable, and we are actually refusing samples now, from abroad. The lab is near perfect. For, even if you have a decimal point mistake, you will damage a career. Nobody can doubt our testing”, thundered Gill.
Bigger sizes
Talking further on the October Games to be hosted in Delhi, Gill reiterated that all the stadiums were built much bigger in magnitude than what was required for the Commonwealth Games and would benefit Indian sports in the long run.
“We could have built the stadiums one year earlier, but there was no action from 2003 to 2008”, he observed.
He conceded that it was a gigantic task to host about 12,000 athletes, coaches, officials and others, for about 16 to 20 days. He said that about 14 to 20 officers had been deputed by the government to strengthen the management and efficiency of the organising committee.
“We already have had record rain for August and September. October is a bit too early”, said the minister as he expressed his concern about the rains hampering the preparation.
However, Gill stated that there was no scope for a better time, owing to the Asian Games scheduled to be staged in November.
