Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court notices to Punjab Government in PIL seeking disbursement of cash awards to students, young sportspersons for achieving positions in sports, games upto State, National and International level.

A division Bench of the HC comprising Justices Surya Kant and Sudhir Mittal today issued notices to State of Punjab, Principal Secretary as well as Director Sports, Punjab in a PIL filed by Advocate H.C. Arora, seeking disbursement of cash awards to students, young sportspersons for achieving positions in sports upto State, National and International levels.

In his PIL, advocate Hari Chand Arora has stated that under Sports Policy-2010 notified by the Punjab Government, students, young persons who achieve first , second or third positions in various competitions at State or National or International level are entitled to cash awards of amounts mentioned therein. However, the Punjab Government has indifferent attitude towards implementation of the said policy.

It did not disburse cash awards to such achievers for the period 2010 to 2015, and it disbursed such cash awards only in August, 2015, on a PIL being filed by the present petitioner. Now again, the students are yet to be paid cash amounts for such awards for the session 2015-2016, and also for session 2016-2017.

In response to an RTI application filed by the petitioner, he was informed by the office of Director (Sports) that no arrangement or budgetary provisions have been made so far for disbursement of such cash awards. As per RTI Information, there are such 1020 students who are yet not paid cash awards for session 2015-2016, though applications were invited from them through public advertisement.

As per RTI information, the various disciplines, games, competitions include (i) All India University Games; (ii) Senior National Championship; (iii) National School Games; (iv) National Para olympics; (v) 31st National Junior Athletics Championship; (vi) National Level Rural Sports Competitions; (vii) 90th Open Punjab Athletic Championship; (viii) 16th National Paraolympic  Championship-2016; (ix) National Women Championship; (x) South Asian Games, 2016 held at Guwahati in February, 2016.

The petitioner has also submitted that amount of such cash awards is also paltry, and it hardly meets the expenses of the students for preparing and participating such competitions. For instance, for achieving first, second and third position in Inter-University tournaments, the cash award specified is Rs.15,000, Rs.12,000 and Rs.10,000 respectively. The State Government is thus,, in a way, discouraging the prospective Olympians. The conduct of the State Government is against the spirit of Sports Policy.