Punjab Sports and Youth Services Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi announced that 2,339 sportspersons, who were deprived of prize money during the tenure of the previous government, will be given cash prizes within the next two months. Moreover, sportspersons who won laurels both nationally and internationally from 2017 till date will also be handed cash prizes.
During a high-level meeting with the top brass of the Sports department and District Sports Officers of the state here, Rana Sodhi asked the officials to prepare lists for distribution of prizes in a phased manner.
"The department has enough funds for the distribution of prize money to the beneficiaries, including 2,339 national and international level sportspersons from the year 2007 to 2015 and the process to distribute cash prizes to these players will be initiated soon," Sodhi said in a statement.
Directing the District Sports Officers to ensure strict adherence to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the Union Health Ministry, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Punjab Health Department regarding the resumption of sports activities in the state, Rana Sodhi said that RT-PCR tests are mandatory for players and thermal scanning must be arranged at stadium entrances.
In addition to this, the training program should be conducted in a staggered manner instead of the presence of all the players at the same time.
"Disinfection of stadiums should be ensured after every training session. The District Sports Officers will be responsible for the implementation of these Standard Operating Procedures", he said.
During the meeting, Principal Secretary Sports K Siva Prasad and Director Sports DPS Kharbanda explained in detail the criteria set by the sports department for resuming training activities and listened to the problems being faced by the DSOs. They said the consent letter should be obtained from the players or their parents pertaining to the participation in the training sessions and asked to ensure the 'Arogya Setu' app in players' mobile phones to keep them protected from COVID-19.
Joint Secretary Sports Council Kartar Singh and all the District sports officers were present during the meeting.
( With inputs from ANI )
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