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What's the story?
After much agitation and protests by the state athletes, the Haryana Government has finally decided to pay full prize money. The government has decided that all the twenty-two athletes from Haryana, who won a medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, will be given their respective compensations, Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs minister, Anil Vij said in a statement.
In case you didn't know...
The Haryana government has been crossing swords with it's athletes for some time now. After the Commonwealth Games, the state's medallist had criticized the government for deducting their prize money. Following the protest, the state cancelled the felicitation ceremony in April this year.
Later on, a diktat, dated 30th April, 2018, came to light which stated that all the Haryana based athletes had to deposit one-third of their income to the Haryana Sports Authority.
"One-third of the income earned by sports-persons from professional sports or commercial endorsements will be deposited with the Haryana State Sports Council, amount to be used for development of sports in the state,” the notification read.
Various Haryana based athletes voiced their frustrations. However, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar took to Twitter to announce that a solution was being looked at.
Heart of the matter
It looks like the whole confrontation between the Haryana Government and the state athletes is finally coming to a rest after the government decided to pay full compensation to all the medal-winning athletes.
There will be three different types of cash prizes given to the state athletes- Rs. 1.5 crore (Gold medallists), Rs. 75 Lakh (Silver Medallists), and Rs. 50 Lakh (Bronze medallists).
Apart from the cash prizes, the Haryana Government will also give appointment letters to all those athletes who won medals in international competitions. A total of 207 athletes, spanning from the previous government's tenure, will be given their letters.
What's next?
Situations such as these have a huge effect on the morale of the athletes. However, the situation seems to have died down now, with a viable solution being looked at. Nevertheless, with the Asian Games coming up, and subsequently the Olympics, situations such as these cannot arise again.
Hopefully, all the athletes will get their respective dues in time from now on, so that they can concentrate on their on-field performance rather than their off-field distresses.
