Haryana’s ‘Chak de’ function Nov 1 to honour CWG winners

CHANDIGARH - Haryana will organise the ‘Chak de Haryana - Chak de India’ function in Sonipat town Nov 1 to honour medal winners and participants from the state in the recently concluded 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said Sunday that the name of the state-level function was inspired by the successful Shah Rukh Khan starrer “Chak De! India”, as sportspersons from Haryana had made significant contribution of 32 medals in raising India’s medal tally to 101.

India ranked second behind Australia in the CWG medals tally.

The Haryana government has announced that players from the state winning gold, silver and bronze medals at the CWG would get cash rewards of Rs 1.5 million (Rs.15 lakh), Rs.1 mn (Rs.10 lakh) and Rs.700,000 respectively.

Haryana players will also get Maruti-Suzuki cars from Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) which has its factory in Gurgaon.

Each gold medal winner will get an SX-4 car (priced at over Rs.800,000), silver medal winners would get Maruti Dzire (Rs.600,000) and bronze medal winners would get a Wagon-R car (Rs.350,000).

“The players are being honoured to encourage them to do even better in the Asian Games and the Olympics. We want them to win more medals and inspire others to take to sports seriously,” Hooda said here.

The Haryana government has also included players like CWG gold medal winners Gagan Narang (shooting), Saina Nehwal (badminton), Krishna Poonia (discus) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling) in the Nov 1 honours list despite these players hailing from other states. But all these players have a direct Haryana connection through their family roots.

The function to honour the players is being held on the occasion of Haryana Day (Nov 1), the day that the state was carved out from Punjab in 1966.