Cash, cars, mobile phones, ghee - Haryana CWG winners take it all!

CHANDIGARH - For medal winners from Haryana in the recently concluded New Delhi Commonwealth Games, it is raining cash, cars, mobile phones and even many kilograms of ghee.

The Haryana government has decided to shower the largesse upon sportspersons from the state who won medals for the country in the mega sporting event in October, a state government spokesman said here Saturday.

The cash rewards and gifts will be handed over to the players at a public ceremony Nov 1 to mark Haryana Day - the state was created Nov 1, 1966 - at the Moti Lal Nehru Sports School, Rai near Sonepat town, 200 km from here.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will honour the gold medal winning players with cash rewards of Rs.1.5 million (15 lakh), Maruti SX-4 car, Nokia phone and 101 kg desi ghee each.

Silver medal winners will be awarded cash prize of Rs.1 million (10 lakh), Maruti Dzire car, Nokia mobile phone and 51 kg desi ghee each. The bronze medallists would be given Rs.500,000 (5 lakh), Maruti Wagon-R car, Nokia cell phone and 31 kg desi ghee each.

Haryana players accounted for 32 medals out of India’s tally of 101 medals at the Commonwealth Games.

The coaches of the medal-winning Haryana players will also be honoured with cash prizes. They will get Rs.300,000, Rs.200,000 and Rs.100,000 for gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively, won by their trainees.

Players from the state who represented the country in the Games but could not win any medals would also be honoured with Rs.200,000 (2 lakh) cash reward each.

The medal winning players being honoured include Saina Nehwal, Gagan Narang, Krishna Poonia, Anisa Sayyad, Annu Raj Singh, Anita, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Manoj, Paramjeet Samota and Vijender Singh.

Players like Saina Nehwal, Gagan Narang, Sushil Kumar and Krishna Poonia, who do not directly belong to Haryana but have their family roots in the state, are being honoured with the same privileges as other medal winners.