Hockey Chandigarh awards 5 players Rs 5 lakh each

Chandigarh, Aug 21 (IANS) Hockey Chandigarh and Tynor on Saturday felicitated the hockey players who participated in the recent Tokyo Olympics at a function here by giving five players a cash award of Rs 5 lakh each.

Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya was the chief guest and Punjab Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi was the guest of honour.

Those felicitated were Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurjant Singh, Monika Malik, Sharmila Devi, Reena Khokhar, Shivendra Singh and Gurminder Singh. Two hockey coaches were given a cash award of Rs 2.5 lakh each.

The Haryana Governor congratulated the hockey stars who after 41 years won a bronze medal and brought international acclaim to Indian hockey. He said he was happy to see that the hockey team had a lot of players from Haryana and Punjab.

Dattatreya said under the state sports policy, the Haryana government had awarded Rs six crore to Olympians for winning gold, Rs four crore for winning silver, and Rs 2.5 crore for bronze medal winners. The Haryana government had given Rs 23.25 crore as reward to outstanding players, adding that all states should prepare a sports policy to encourage players so that they can perform even better.

The Punjab Sports Minister said it was praiseworthy on the part of Hockey Chandigarh to felicitate the hockey stars. Lauding their performance at the Tokyo Olympics, he said it was indeed a proud moment for the state that the players had given an excellent performance.

Giving details about sprucing up facilities in Punjab, he said new facilities would be created in the state and the existing ones would be upgraded.

Karan Gilhotra, President, Hockey Chandigarh, said, "It was always the endeavour of Hockey Chandigarh to encourage the players and will continue to promote the sport in a big way. It was indeed a moment of pride for the country to see our players excelling at the Olympics."

He heads the Karan Gilhotra Foundation which is actively engaged in the service of the sports community.

P.J. Singh, Senior Vice-President, Hockey Chandigarh and Chief Managing Director, Tynor, assured support to the hockey players.