Sports Minister gives cash awards to SAG medallists

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday announced a cash reward of Rs 1.5 lakh for the 174 gold medallists of the South Asian Games held in Nepal. The South Asian Games concluded on Tuesday with India topping the table for the 13th time in a row, winning 312 medals including 174 gold, 93 silver and 45 bronze. The silver and bronze winners will receive Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 respectively.

"Going forward, we will have will have a structured cash reward policy for medallists in South Asian Games, like we have it for other multi sporting events like the Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games," said Rijiju at a felicitation ceremony for the medallists.

"These Games should be a stepping stone for bigger things ahead. I congratulate all the medal winners and even those who participated. I wanted to give them more but due to financial constraints we could not this time around," he said.

Asked about shooter Ravi Kumar and boxer Sumit Sangwan being tested positive for a banned substance, the minister added: "Doping is a serious issue all around the world. The game should be clean and transparent and we are trying to increase awareness on doping.

"I don't want players to misguided due to lack of information. We want to sensitise each of our athlete so that he or she doesn't fall into the trap of doping."

As per reports in the Bangladesh media, its gold medallists were promised Rs 5 lakh each.