Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday announced that the State Government would soon work out modalities for providing jobs to the medalists and asked the State Chief Secretary to examine the matter on the top priority before taking a final decision.
In his address on the occasion to honour the Olympic medalists and participants of Tokyo Olympics-2020 with cash prize of Rs. 28.36 crore here at a glittering ceremony in Punjab Bhawan this evening who brought laurels to the country especially the state thereby making all the Punjabis proud on their rare feat, the Chief Minister said Punjab has rewritten the history in the sporting annals of the country.
CM along with the Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore also transferred the cash prize money online in the accounts of the Olympic medalists and participants.
As a token of respect and gratitude, the women hockey players presented a hockey stick to the Chief Minister with signatures of its entire team members.
CM termed it as a beginning towards revival of India’s lost glory in Hockey.
CM announced to name the schools and approach roads leading to their native villages after the names of the players. He also asked the PWD and School Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla to identify such schools and roads so as to give due honour to the players who made every Punjabi proud.
CM also promoted the Men’s Hockey Captain Manpreet Singh as Superintendent of Police from DSP in Punjab Police.
While making a special mention of the Hockey legend Balbir Singh Senior and iconic Athlete Milkha Singh, he said nobody would have been happier than these two stalwarts at this rare achievement, had they been alive today. He said the state government would also honour Gold Medal winner Javelin Thrower Neeraj Chopra the first ever Indian athlete to achieve the unique accomplishment, having roots in Punjab, who could not make it to attend this function.
CM said that athlete Kamalpreet Kaur would ever inspire the budding players to further achieve the new heights of glory in national as well as international tournaments. He also highly lauded the participation of Punjab players in boxing, shooting and athletics.
On the occasion, 10 Bronze medal winner male Hockey players have been honoured with Rs. 2.51 crore each, Two Women Hockey players (Semi-Final) with Rs. 50 lakh each, One male Hockey player (Participant) with Rs. 50 lakh, One athlete (Finalist) with Rs. 50 lakh and six players (Participants) with Rs. 21 lakh each.
Notably, the 20 players from Punjab took part in the Tokyo Olympics comprised 11 from Men’s Hockey team (Bronze Medal winners) viz. Manpreet Singh (Captain), Mandeep Singh, Hardik Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinderpal Singh, Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Krishan Pathak, Varun Kumar and Simranjit Singh, 3 from Athletics namely Tejinderpal Singh Toor (Shotput), Kamalpreet Kaur (Discus Throw) and Gurpreet Singh (50 Km Walker), 2 each from Women’s Hockey team (reached semi-finals and was placed 4th) viz. Gurjit Kaur, Reena Khokhar and Shooting viz. Anjum Moudgill and Angadvir Singh, 1 from Boxing namely Simranjit Kaur and 1 from Badminton viz. Palak Kohli who would shortly participate in the Paralympics.