Funds to reach athletes soon, says DYES

Only 32 of 75 athletes have been paid full amount for training

Following India's run at the Tokyo Olympics, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had announced the "Amrita Kreeda Datthu Yojane" (Amrita Sports Adoption Programme) for the benefit of Karnataka sportspersons on August 15.

“Amrita Kreeda Datthu Yojane will be implemented to encourage and train our state's 75 talented sportspersons who have the potential to win medals in the upcoming Paris Olympics,” Bommai had said during his Independence Day speech at the Manekshaw Parade Ground then.

Under the scheme, the state government was to provide Rs 5 lakh per annum to each of the 75 athletes across 21 disciplines for three years until the Paris 2024 quadrennial bash. A little over a week ago, Bommai increased the aid to Rs 10 lakh.

However, a year has passed since the announcement was first made but the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) said only 32 athletes have received the full amount of Rs 5 lakh for the year 2021-2022.

Among the remaining 43, a few athletes have received Rs 1.20 lakh as the first installment while a few others were credited Rs 1.50 lakh to their bank accounts in February this year.

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However, HN Gopala Krishna, Commissioner DYES, didn't want to term it a delay.

"According to the initial government circular, we were to allot only Rs 1.20 lakh to the athletes directly (through DBT) and rest of the money to the academy they practice at. But many athletes asked us to credit the entire sum directly to them while reviewing their progress at the end of a year.

"Considering their request we revised our decision and sent a fresh proposal to the government. We received an approval recently and began the process of dispatching the remaining amount directly to the athletes accounts a few days ago. Everybody should receive the funds within a day or two," Krishna added.

Following this there was a "technical objection" that prolonged the process of distribution.

Krishna claimed that two cheques were released through two different accounts to the State's treasury department. One got cleared while the other had a few technical objections like order number, account head details etc which were raised by the treasury department.

"We have clarified the minor details to the treasury department and sent it again a few days ago. The distribution of the dues has begun already," claimed Krishna.

Also, the process of reviewing the performances of the selected athletes in the list will begin soon, said Shalini Rajneesh, Additional Chief Secretary, DYES.

"The committee under the leadership of honorable sports minister is yet to meet to finalise the second year's list of 75. Subsequently, we will release the grant of Rs 10 lakh right after," she said.