Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Thursday, said that taking inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resolve to encourage athletes and promoting sports in the country, Uttar Pradesh has made significant efforts to foster sports culture.
He claimed that UP is the only state that honoured all the athletes who bagged medals and made the country proud.
Addressing a felicitation ceremony orgnised for sportspersons at Raj Bhavan in Lucknow on the occasion of 74th Republic Day in presence of the Governor Anandi Ben Patel, Yogi Adityanath said, “The state drew inspiration from the PM’s encouragement and support to the sports fraternity and adopted a similar approach. Our government is leaving no stone unturned to provide all necessary assets to the sportspersons to promote sports activities for them to shine nationally and internationally.”
He said the process of reserving land for sports grounds through conversion in every village, construction of open gyms, mini stadiums at the block level, and stadiums at the district level is going on at war footing.
“The government is working dedicatedly to provide government jobs to the talented sportspersons of the state. Two players (Lalit Upadhyay and Vijay Yadav) were given appointment letters as gazetted officers. Soon, many other players will also be benefitted,” he added.
Yogi also said that construction of the state’s first sports university named after Major Dhyanchand is underway in Meerut.
The CM said that his government was giving encouragement to players through a provision of Rs 6 crore for winning gold in a single game in the Olympics, Rs 4 crore for silver and Rs 2 crore for winning bronze. In team games, Rs 3 crore for achieving a gold medal, Rs 2 crore for the silver medal and Rs 1 crore are being given to the players who win bronze.
Similarly, the government gives a monetary reward of Rs 3 crore for gold, Rs 1.5 crore for silver and Rs 75 lakh for winning bronze in the Asian Games and Rs 1.5 crore for winning a gold medal, Rs 75 lakh for silver and Rs 50 lakh for bronze in Commonwealth and World Cup championships.
In addition, Rs 10-10 lakhs are given to the players participating in the Olympics and Rs 5-5 lakhs in the Asian and Commonwealth categories. Out of the 14 state players, four won silver and bronze medals in the Commonwealth held in Birmingham (England) while in the 36th National Games in held in Gujarat, UP players brought laurels by winning 20 gold, 18 silver and 18 bronze medals in 18 sports events.
On the occasion, Governor Anandi Ben Patel said, “It is a pleasure to honour the sportspersons on the auspicious day of Basant Panchami. Defeats should not disappoint sportspersons and victories should not overwhelm you. For attaining success in any field, the most important thing is to remain disciplined.”
The governor said when the PM had come to lay the foundation stone of the Sports University in Meerut, he had discussed with the players that they should teach the primary-secondary school children from where they come from. “Your talent should reach the people around you. You will benefit more than they will benefit. One player should prepare 10 players”, she said.
State Minister of State for Sports and Youth Welfare (Independent Charge) Girish Chand Yadav, Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary (Sports) Navneet Sehgal, were present on the occasion.
Following are the CWG medal winners who were honoured:
Divya Kakran of Muzaffarnagar – Bronze (wrestling) – Rs 50 lakhs
Sarita Romit Singh – Participant (Athletics) – Rs 5 lakhs
Poonam Yadav Participant (Weightlifting) – Rs 5 Lakh
Poornima Pandey – Participant (Weightlifting) -Rs 5 lakh
Rohit Yadav – Participant (Athletics) – Rs 5 lakhs
Vishwanath Yadav – Participant (Triathlon) – Rs 5 lakhs
Medal winners of the 36th National Games held in Gujarat were also honoured.
