Medallists paid as per entitlement: Vij

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 26

Amid allegations of cut in prize money for sportspersons winning international medals, Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Anil Vij on Wednesday said they had been paid in accordance with entitlement.

Responding to Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat’s tweets expressing displeasure over cut in prize money, Vij said the allegations were untrue and they could speak to the department.

“The sports policy says if a sportsperson wins medals in two events in a year, he or she will get complete prize money for the event for which the amount is higher and 50 per cent for the other. This rule was in vogue for 30 years, but this time, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games came in a single year and Punia and Phogat won gold medals in both,” said Vij.

He said both players were entitled to Rs 3 crore each for the Asian Games gold and Rs 1.5 crore each for the Commonwealth Games gold. He said since both events occurred in 2018, Rs 75 lakh each was cut from their prize money as per rules.

Vij said the prize money being given to sportspersons was the highest in the country and much higher than what was being given by the previous government.

Wrestlers Punia, Phogat and Yogeshwar Dutt on Wednesday criticised the government over cut in prize money for winning international medals.

“Haryana youth gave medals to the country. Haryana may be a small state, but has made the country proud on numerous occasions. Their morale should not be lowered by cut in prize money. My request to the Haryana Government is to reconsider this,” tweeted Punia.

Phogat was more vocal, asking the Haryana Government to take back their prize money. “I request the Haryana Government to take back the prize money. Do not insult players by using them for your politics,” she tweeted.

Dutt said the cut in prize money was quite unfortunate. “They should be told the reason behind the prize money cut,” he tweeted. “Players bring laurels and make the state and country proud and their morale should be increased so that they can win more medals in the future,” he added.