500 jobs for medal winners, 1,000 centres among steps to boost sports culture in Punjab: Minister

Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer Monday said 500 jobs have been created for outstanding medal winners and 1,000 sports nurseries will be set up in the state.

The Punjab Cabinet on Saturday approved the new sports policy, 2023, aimed to focus on training, incentives, robust infrastructure, and jobs for athletes.

Addressing the media here, Hayer said 1,000 sports nurseries will be developed with a budget of Rs 250 crore to provide athletes with better coaching, sports equipment and refreshments.

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The minister said a provision has been created to offer the top 500 medal winners various job positions in the special cadre, including 40 deputy directors, 92 senior coaches, 138 coaches and 230 junior coaches.

He said there are only 309 coaches in Punjab but their strength has now been increased to 2,360 under the new sports policy.

Sharing further steps taken to boost the sports culture in the state, Hayer said residential sports facilities with 200 hostel rooms will be established in each district to prepare sportspersons for national-level competitions.

Such centres will be able to house total 5,000 players from across the state, he said.

The district-level facilities in Jalandhar, Mahilpur, Mohali, Patiala, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Amritsar will be upgraded to state-level, the minister said.

State-level centres equipped with state-of-the-art facilities will also be established, he added.

The sports minister said winners of gold, silver and bronze medals in the Olympic games will be given a cash reward of Rs 3 crore, Rs 2 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively. Earlier, the prize money for gold, silver and bronze medal winners were Rs 2.25 crore, Rs 1.50 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively.

Hayer added that the number of such cash prize winners has been increased from 25 to 80.

Under the new policy, cash rewards will be given to medal winners of other games as well, including Special Olympics, deaf Olympics, para world games (Rs 75, 50 and 30 lakh), Badminton's Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, BWF World Tour Finals (Rs 75, 50 and 40 lakh), Tennis All Grand Slams (Rs 75, 50 and 40 lakh), Azlan Shah Hockey Cup (Rs 75, 50 and 40 lakh), Diamond League and recognized tournaments of internationally reputed organizations (Rs 75, 50 and 40 lakhs), deaf World Cup, blind World Cup (Rs 60, 40 and 20 lakh rupees), Youth Olympic Games (50, 30 and 20 lakh rupees), etc.

Hayer said the government, in a first, has decided to award coaches and sports promoters.

Outstanding coaches will now get the Olympian Balbir Singh Senior Coach Award, which will include a prize money of Rs 5 lakh, a trophy and a blazer, he added.

Similarly, the Milkha Singh Award will be given to sports promoters or organisations working independently. The prize money will include Rs 5 lakh, memento, blazer and certificate, he said.

Announcing the cash for the first time for the preparation of international sports competitions, Hayer said Rs 15 lakh will be given for the Olympics and Paralympics.

Similarly, funds for the preparation of other games including the Deaf Olympics, Special Olympics, and World Championship will also be given, he added.

According to the new sports policy, in addition to the gradation list of 35 sports, sports included in the Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth Games will also be graded, the minister said.

A website will be created to maintain a record of the state's players and a YouTube channel will be started for live broadcasting of sports competitions.