The Chief Minister, Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh today honoured 101 players with the prestigious Maharaja Ranjit Singh Awards here today at Hotel Hyatt Regency amid the presence of Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, Punjab, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi.The players names are as follows:- Veteran Sports Legends (Total 20) Triple Olympic Gold Winner Hockey player Balbir Singh Senior, Commonwealth and Asian Games Champion Milkha Singh, Best Athlete of Asia Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, India’s lone World Cup Hockey Captain Ajit Pal Singh, Spin Bowler Bishan Singh Bedi, and First Gold Medal winning Indian Woman athlete at Asian Games Kamaljeet Kaur Sandhu. Apart from these, Brigadier Harcharan Singh, Colonel Balbir Singh, Baldev Singh, Harmik Singh, Hardeep Singh, Jagjeet Singh, Gulshan Rai, Jaipal Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Balwinder Singh Fidda, Paramjit Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Mohinder Singh Gill and Surjit Singh (Posthumously). These have earlier been bestowed with Padma Shri or Arjuna Award by the Union Government.81 other players from Punjab who have rendered exceptional performances at the National and International in sporting arena from the year 2011-2018. These also comprise of those players who have won Arjuna Award during these years.
The players include 15 for achievements in 2011 and these are- Rajpal Singh, Rajinder Singh Rahelu, Heena Sidhu, Mandeep Sidhu, Mandeep Kaur, Gagandeep Kaur, Dilawar Singh, Kuljit Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Komalpreet Shukla, Ravipal, Ranjit Kaur, Mankiran Kaur, Gurchand Singh, Hardeep Singh and Manjit Singh, 14 players for achievements in 2012-Navpreet Kaur, Sunita Rani, Gurinder Singh, Amrit Singh, Shammipreet Kaur, Kiranjit Kaur, Rajwant Kaur, Sarwanjit Singh, Sahil Pathania, Jashandeep Singh, Lakhbir Kaur, Navjot Kaur, Ranjit Singh & Mahabir Singh, 5 players for achievements in 2013- Mandeep Kaur, Amandeep Kaur, Sapna Dutta, Samit Singh and Triptpal Singh, 5 players for achievements in 2014-Davinder Singh, Gurbaaz Singh, Jasmine, Mandeep Singh and Baljit Singh.Similarly, 10 players got the award for achievements during the year 2015- Arpinder Singh, Trisha Deb, Shahbaz Singh Bhangoo, Dharamvir Singh, Aman Kumar, Rubi Tomar, Shiv Kumar, Vikas Thakur, Davinder Singh and Amandeep Sharma, 15 players for achievements during the year 2016- Swaran Singh Virk, Khushbir Kaur, Kanwalpreet Singh, Amjot Singh, Rekha Rani, Neelam Rani, Prabhjot Kaur Bajwa, Maninder Kaur, Gurwinder Singh, Rajwinder Kaur, Gurinder Singh, Malaika Goyal, Gurpreet Singh, Jasvir Kaur and Parul Gupta, 7 players for achievements during 2017-Raj Rani, Amandeep Kaur (Handball), Amandeep kaur (Hockey), Varinder Kumar, Ajitesh Kaushal, Davinder Singh and Sanjeev Kumar and 10 players for achievements in 2018-Manpreet Singh, Navjit Kaur Dhillon, Ramandeep Kaur, Gurjit Kaur, Randeep Kaur, Veerpal Kaur, Navneet Kaur, Sahil Chopra, Harshdeep Kaur and Veena Arora.
Galaxy of veteran Sports stars present on the occasion:-
Kaur Singh, Kartar Singh, Prem Chand Degra, Bahadur Singh (All Padma Shri Awardees), Gurbax Singh Sandhu, Rajinder Singh Senior (Dronacharya Awardee), Rajbeer Kaur Rai, Manjit Kaur, Gurdev Singh Gill, Sajjan Singh Cheema (All Arjuna Awardees), and Gurmail Singh (Olympic Gold Medallist).