)
Delhi Government today announced that it has doubled the cash incentive for the players winning medals in international, national and state tournaments in all sports and there will be liberal allocation of funds for promotion of games.
Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung said allocation of funds will be doubled in this year and will be further increased in the coming years.
He also directed the Department of Education (DoE) to prepare a vision and a strategy to promote sports at mass level across the city and to produce champions in every game.
"Delhi Government has doubled the cash incentives to the players bringing laurels to the country in various international tournaments including the Olympic games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and other international tournaments.
"Besides this, the incentives are also being provided to the medal winners in national, state and zonal level tournaments. The cash incentives varies from Rs 2,000 for zonal level medal winner to Rs one crore for Olympics gold medal winner sports person," a release said.
The government has also decided to give cash incentive to coaches of sports persons who bring laurels to the country.
Jung said appointment of Olympic gold medalist wrestler Sushil Kumar as the brand ambassador of Delhi will act as a catalyst and motivate sports persons of Delhi and will turn them into champions and medal winning athletes.
The sports infrastructure created in the national capital for Commonwealth Games, 2010 is being optimally utilized for the purpose of promotion of sports, he said.
The release said that DoE is working on a three-fold vision--grooming and nurturing the talented players, identification of the talent of upcoming student players and broad basing of sports at mass level.
It said that the government has started providing funds at the grass root level for promotion of sports.
It also said DoE has made plans for providing world class sports infrastructure in its schools in a phased manner and in the first phase, around 80 government schools have been identified for this purpose.
Delhi has got a record 354 gold medals in National School Games in 2013-14, beating its own record of 293 gold medals in 2012-13, it said.
