India's 653-member contingent will participate in the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8, in which 48 players are from Punjab. Apart from this, 10 Punjabi para players will participate in the Para Asian Games which are being held in Hangzhou from October 22 to 28 next month.
Under its new sports policy, the Punjab Government has given Rs. 4.64 Crore cash to 58 sportspersons for preparation. Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer while congratulating the Indian players for the Asian Games expressed hope that these players will bring laurels for the state as well as the country in the coming two weeks.
Meet Hayer said that on the instructions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, the new sports policy has been implemented at the grassroots level and for the Asian Games, a total of Rs 4.64 Cr has been given to the 58 players of Punjab who are participating in these games. It is pertinent to mention that Rs 8 lakh cash has been given to each participating player.
It is for the first time that cash prize money for preparation has been given to the players.The Sports Minister expressed his gratitude to the Chief Minister for giving cash prize money to encourage sportspersons, for which Punjab became the first state to give cash money for the preparation of the Games. He said that the Punjabi players who won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the Asian Games would get Rs. 1 Cr, Rs.75 lakh and Rs.50 lakh respectively as prize money.
Sports Minister while releasing the details of players from Punjab who are going to participate in the Asian Games said that 10 players in the Hockey including Captain Harmanpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Varun Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh, Shamsher Singh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sukhjit Singh, 9 players from Shooting Zorawar Singh Sandhu, Ganemat Sekhon, Angadvir Singh Bajwa, Gurjot Singh Khangura, Parinaz Dhaliwal, Rajeshwari Kumari, Sift Kaur Samra, Vijayveer Sidhu and Arjun Singh Cheema, Five from Rowing Charanjit Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Sukhmeet Singh and Satnam Singh, Five Cricketers Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Kanika Ahuja, Amanjot Kaur, Arshdeep Singh and Prabhasimran Singh, Five Basketball players Sahajpreet Singh Sekhon, Princepal Singh, Manmeet Kaur, Yashneet Kaur and Anmolpreet Kaur, Four Athletes Tajinder Pal Singh Toor, Harmilan Bains, Manju Rani and Akshdeep Singh, Three Archers Parneet Kaur, Avneet Kaur and Simranjit Kaur, Two Fencer Ena Arora and Arjun, Two Cyclist Harshveer Singh Sekhon and Vishavajit Singh, One each players from Badminton, Judo and Wrestling Dhruv Kapila, Avtar Singh and Narinder Cheema respectively.
Meet Hayer further said that among the 58 players of Punjab, 10 Para Athletes are also included. Four Para Powerlifter Paramjit Kumar, Jaspreet Kaur, Manpreet Kaur and Seema Rani, Three Para Athletes Momhad Yasser, Mithun and Jaspreet Kaur Saran, Two Para Badminton players Palak Kohli and Raj Kumar and Para Takewando player Veena Arora are representing Punjab in the Indian Contingent.