On Saturday the Punjab Cabinet approved the new policy for the sports to boost the athletes and by making such changes they are aiming to focus on the training of the athletes, reboust infrastructure, incentives and jobs provided to the sports person in Punjab.
Gurmeet Sing Meet Hayer, Punjab sports minister said that there are 500 jobs created for the outstanding medal winners so that they can also work and 1,000 sports nurseries will be set up in the states for sportspersons.
While addressing the media on Monday in Chandigarh, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that 1,000 sports nurseries will be set up and developed and the budget for the same will be ₹250 Crore so that the athletes can be provided with better coaching and equipment’s and refreshments for their practices.
The minister said that a provision has been made to provide jobs for top 500 medalist winners. Various jobs position will be given in a special cadre, 138 coaches, 40 deputy directors, 230 junior coaches and 92 senior coaches. These will be the position provided to the athletes.
The minister also stated that the number of coaches in Punjab right now are 309 and now under the new sports policy 2024 the numbers of the coaches have increased and it is 2,360 total coaches in Punjab.
Further by sharing the steps taken by the state to boost the sports culture. The minister Hayer said, that there will be development of the residential facilities, in which 200 rooms hostels will be built in each district of the state to provide sport person with all the equipment and guidance needed and to prepare them for national-level competition.
The thought behind having such accommodation (center) facilities for the sports person is that it will help around 5,000 athletes across the state to stay and prepare at one place.
The minister also said that, the district level facilities in Amritsar, Bathinda, Patiala, Ludhiana, Mohali, Mahilpur and Jalandhar all these district will be up-graded to the state-level.
The minister Hayer, also added that all the gold, silver and bronze medal winners in the Olympic games will be provided with a cash rewards of rupees 3 crores, 2 crores and 1 crore respectively. Whereas earlier the prize money was different for gold, silver and bronze medal winners it was rupees 2.25 crores, 1.50 crores and 1 crore respectively. He also added that the numbers of such cash prize winners have also increased from 25 to now 80 medalist.
Under the new policy, the minister has also decided to rewards the medal winners with cash prizes of other games as well, including deaf Olympic, special Olympic, para world games (Rs. 75, 50 and 30 lakhs), tennis all grand slams (Rs. 70, 50 and 40 lakhs) and many more such sports games.
Hayer also stated that, the government at first also decided to reward the coaches and sports promoters too. It is decided that the outstanding coach will be receiving the Olympian Balbir Singh Senior Coach Award, and a cash prize of 5 lakhs Rs. Including as trophy and a blazer too.
Similarly, sports promoters or organization working independently will be awarded with Milkha Singh Award including the cash prize of 5 lakhs Rs, a memento with a blazer and a certificate too.
