Haryana’s Rs.37.5 lakh award for Hyderabad boy Gagan Narang

CHANDIGARH - Shooter Gagan Narang hails from Hyderabad but when Haryana honours medal winners of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG), he will be the biggest beneficiary - thanks to his family’s Panipat connection.

Narang, who won four gold medals at the Games, will walk away with a cash reward of Rs.37.5 lakh ($8.4 million). This is the highest prize money among around 35 players, who will be honoured by the Haryana government at a public ceremony near Sonepat Monday.

Each gold medal winner will get Rs.15 lakh from the Haryana government. Those winning more than one gold medal will get an additional Rs.7.5 lakh for every medal.

And that’s not all.

Narang and other gold medallists will also get a Maruti SX-4 car (priced around Rs.8 lakh), a Nokia mobile phone and 101 kg of ‘desi ghee’.

“Those state players who won more than one medal in the Commonwealth Games would get additional cash award at the ‘Chak De Haryana, Chak De India’ rally as per the state’s sports policy,” Hooda said here Sunday.

Narang, who lives in Andhra Pradesh capital Hyderabad, had recently told Hooda that his family had lived in Panipat town of Haryana for decades before moving down south.

Ace badminton player Saina Nehwal, who also won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games and hails from Hyderabad, will also get a cash reward of Rs.15 lakh from the Haryana government Monday.

Saina’s father, a scientist based in Hyderabad, hails from Haryana.

“Our sports policy has encouraged sportspersons from Haryana to give this sterling performance in the CWG. Forty-four percent of the total medals (101) won by India were bagged by Haryana players,” Hooda said.

The Haryana government has decided to shower the largesse - cash, cars, mobile phones and ‘desi ghee’ - upon sportspersons from the state who won medals in the Oct 3-14 mega sporting event in New Delhi.

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

Hooda will award silver medal winners a cash prize of Rs.10 lakh, a Maruti Dzire car (priced around Rs.7 lakh), a Nokia mobile phone and 51 kg ‘desi ghee’ each. The bronze medallists would be given Rs.5 lakh, Maruti Wagon-R car (priced around Rs.3.5 lakh, a Nokia cell phone and 31 kg ‘desi ghee’ each.

The coaches of the medal-winning Haryana players will also be honoured with cash prizes. They will get Rs.3 lakh, Rs.2 lakh and Rs.1 lakh for the 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.2 lakh cash reward.

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

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

While Sushil Kumar is from Delhi, Krishna Poonia is married and settled in neighbouring Rajasthan.