CHIMPU: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has announced that the prize-money for Olympic medal winners from the state will be enhanced.
“The existing prize money for Olympians from the state will be enhanced from Rs three crore to Rs five crore for a gold, from Rs two crore to Rs three crore for a silver and from Rs one crore to Rs two crore for a bronze medal.
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Even the prize money for participating in the Olympic Games will be enhanced from Rs 40 lakhs to Rs 60 lakhs,” announced the Chief Minister during the closing ceremony of the 6th Hangpan Dada Memorial Trophy at Sangey Lhaden Sports Academy playground here on Wednesday.
“This incentive is to encourage our budding talents to give their best,” he said.
“In addition to cash incentives the government has kept job reservation of 10 percent in the police and 5 percent in all other departments of the state government for meritorious sportspersons,” the CM said.
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Khandu reiterated that “there is no dearth of sporting talent in the state and all they need is right training and right platform to perform at the highest levels.”
He said that the state government is giving big impetus on games and sports by developing state-of-the-art sports infrastructure and putting in place a comprehensive sports policy to encourage youths to take up sports and reward them on their achievements.
He cited the examples of Omang Dodum, a rising football star, who is in India’s final squad for the prestigious AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023 and Gyamar Nikum, another gifted footballer, who has been signed-in by Mumbai City Football Club under a five-year contract deal to play in the Indian Super League.
The Chief Minister also congratulated the state karate team for emerging the overall champion by bagging 16 gold, five silver and 11 bronze medals in the recent National Karate Championship held in New Delhi as well as the state Wushu team for winning 10 medals in the Moscow Wushu Star Championship held last month.
To tap natural football talent as early as possible, he informed, the state Cabinet on May 31 approved the U-14 Indrajit Namchoom Annual Football League as a calendar event of the state government.
He further informed that the government is launching the ‘Football for School’ programme, a first-of-its-kind initiative to promote football in 200 schools of the state to groom budding talents in the age group of 6 to 13.
With the next Olympic Games in mind, Khandu said the sports department has been directed to shortlist fields specific to Arunachal Pradesh youths and train them for the biggest competition of the world.
Appreciating the role of the SLSA in imparting training to young sportspersons, Khandu said that one similar sports academy will be soon established in Changlang to hone sporting talents of the eastern part of the state.
Paying rich tributes to Hangpan Dada in whose memory the erstwhile football and volleyball tournaments for Chief Minister’s Trophy was renamed in 2016, Khandu said that by sacrificing his life for the country fighting terrorists in Kupwara, Jammu & Kashmir, in May 2016, Dada has made the state proud.
He urged the youngsters to inculcate the virtue of sacrificing comfort to achieve something great in life.