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The Union Minister for Sports & Youth Affairs, Shri Sunil Dutt will give away the special awards to 257 sportspersons who have won medals in international sports held during the previous year, at a function to be organised here tomorrow.
This is to motivate outstanding sportspersons for even higher achievements and to attract the younger generation to take to sports as a career. The purpose is also to help the medal winners of international sports events for the expenses incurred on diet, training, preparations and for the challenges faced by them due to their devotion and service to sports.
The award money under the ‘Special Awards’ scheme ranges from Rs.30,000/- to Rs.30.00 lakhs. This year a total amount of Rs.3,83,84,993/- will be given as ‘special awards’ to 257 identified sportspersons with Rs.23 lakhs as the highest individual award. This year the awards will be given in 17 disciplines – Athletic, Archery, Billiards and Snooker, Boxing, Chess, Gymnastic, Hockey, Kabaddi, Judo, Rowing, Shooting, Squash, Table Tennis, Tennis, Weightlifting, Wrestling and Yachting.
The Scheme of Special Awards to medals Winners in International Sports Events and their Coaches was introduced in 1986. This scheme has now become a component of the scheme ‘Relating to Awards’ which has been formulated in 2004 by merging the two ongoing schemes of ‘Special Awards to Medals Winners in International Sports Events and Their Coaches’ and ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award’.
Since the inception of the scheme, 2258 sportspersons and their coaches have been given awards under the scheme. With this years’ awards, the total number of such recipients will go up to 2515.
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