AP, Telangana govts announce Rs 8 crore reward to P V Sindhu

The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments announced a cash reward of Rs 8 crore to Olympic silver medalist in women's badminton singles P V Sindhu.

The 21-year-old from Hyderabad crumbled under the relentless pressure created by Spain's Carolina Marin to lose 21-19, 12-21, 15-21 in a pulsating final that lasted for an hour and 23 minutes last night.

After chairing a state cabinet meeting at Secretariat here, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said it has been decided to provide Rs 5 crore cash reward and 1,000 yards of land to Sindhu.

Besides KCR also offered the ace shuttler a government job, if she is willing to do.

The Chief Minister also announced cash reward of Rs 1 crore to Sindhu's coach P Gopichand and praised his efforts to produce shuttlers who are in the world top-50 like Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap and others.

Rao also said the Cabinet decided to give cash reward of Rs 1 crore to grappler Sakshi Malik, who won bronze at the Rio Olympics.

In a separate announcement Andhra Pradesh government announced a slew of rewards, including a cash award of Rs 3 crore, to shuttler P V Sindhu who just clinched a silver medal in the Rio Olympics.

"We will give her 1,000 sq yds of house site in the state's new capital Amaravati and also a Group-1 officer post in the state government. She can choose the post she wants," Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said.

The government would also award Rs 50 lakh to Sindhu's coach Pullela Gopichand for mentoring her, he said.