List includes Mandeep Kaur, Rajpal Singh, Heena Sidhu, Ravi pal
It will clear backlog of eight years
By Amrit Pal Singh Brar
Bathinda, 3 March, 2019: The Punjab government has chosen 94 sportspersons of the state to confer with Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award. It is the highest state sports award conferred on the meritorious sportspersons.
It will clear the backlog of eight years .i.e. from 2011 to 2018. No award was conferred during the last eight years. Last award ceremony was held in 2011 before the 2012 state assembly elections. The gap includes five years rule of SAD-BJP and two years of Congress.
12 seniors chosen for Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award
The good development in the list of 94 selected sportsperson is the inclusion of the 12 senior sportsperson, who earlier were left out, may be due to certain reasons. These include Harcharan Singh Olympian (Hockey) 1977-78, Hardeep Singh (Kabbadi) 1992, Jagjit Singh (Rowing) 1999, Jaipal Singh (Boxing) 1988, Balwinder Singh Fidda (Kabaddi) 1999 among others.
It was expected that award ceremony will be held before Lok Sabha elections announcement to build a goodwill atmosphere, but so far there is no word regarding this from the sports department.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award is an award given by the Government of Punjab for excellence and achievement in the service of Punjab in the field of Sport.
There are around 30 sports disciplines that are eligible for the award. Padma Shri awardees, Arjuna awardees and Rajiv Gandhi Khel awardees who are domiciles of the state become automatically eligible for this award.
The award was instituted in 1978 it consists of a trophy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, honouree citation and 1 lacs Rupees. During the 2011 sports policy, the award money was enhanced to Rs two lacs.
Now, in the new sports policy cleared by the Capt Amarinder Singh government in October 2018 award money has been enhanced to Rs Five lacs. To know whether the provisions of the new policy will be applicable on these 94 sportspersons, A call was made to Director Sports Amrit Gill who said “As per the present policy amount is Rs two lacs. We are planning to give it in March”.
Much more is needed to be done for the sportsperson. There is strong demand from sports fraternity for facility of free bus passes in the state on the line of the facility being provided to the Arjuna awardees. It worth mentioning here, that Arjuna awardees are provided free train facility in all classes including AC Ist, AC 2nd and Non-AC trains in the country.