Bhopal: Sports department deviates on prize money to silver, bronze medallists

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Sports and Youth Welfare Department (DSYW) has deviated from own words on giving equal prize to silver and bronze medallists. The department announced that an equal amount of prize money would be given to winners of silver and gold medals.

The department also issued a press release mentioning it. But now, they deny having ever made any such commitment, what appeared in the press release may have been a typo.

Earlier, officials of DSYW made many promises while announcing the state contingent on September 25, 2022. Some of them were fulfilled after seven months of 36th National Games. But the prize money is still a question. The officials announced that both silver and bronze medallists will get Rs 3.20 lakh as prize money.

At the press conference held at Tatya Tope Stadium, the officials including director of sports and youth welfare Ravi Kumar Gupta along with other officials, announced, "This time, for the first time in the history of MP, the state players will travel in third a/c and they will get 5 lakh if they win gold medals and Rs 3.20 lakh if they win silver and bronze medals.”

The athletes received the prize money seven months after the tournament. The gold and silver medallists were happy but the bronze medallists were sad. They said, “Before national games, we read in the newspapers that both silver and bronze medallists will get Rs 3.20 lakh. But we only received Rs 2.40 lakh. We were hoping for more."

When Free Press asked DSYW Joint Director BS Yadav about the same issue, he denied announcement, saying, "We didn’t announce any such prize money. Why would we give the same prize money to silver and bronze medallists? We gave away prize money according to our gazette. It must be some technical error. It must be a typo."